CHAPTER 26: LIGHT BEYOND DARKNESS
The light did not fade immediately, it lingered, vast and overwhelming, stretching across the broken battlefield like a final breath that refused to release. It swallowed the ruins of Chicago in a soft, blinding glow, erasing the jagged edges of destruction and replacing them with something almost peaceful. For a moment, the war disappeared. The pain, the chaos, the endless clash of power, all of it was drowned beneath Rowan’s light. And at the center of that brilliance, she stood suspended, her form radiant yet fragile, like a star burning at the edge of its existence. Kevin’s heart pounded violently in his chest as he stared at her, his instincts screaming louder than they ever had before, not of danger, but of loss.
“Rowan!” Kevin’s voice broke throu
