Elijah’s pov
I stood panting on the ridge’s crest, Orion’s broad figure beside me like a mountain of iron and pride. The sky had turned blood-red at dawn, and the valley below was thick with smoke and the clash of arms. Everywhere I looked, Crimson Moon warriors surged forward, shields locked, swords gleaming. Behind them, the archers let fly volley after volley, and my own hands still glowed faintly with the wards I’d woven before the fight.
Just moments earlier, I had watched Leila confront Sebastian himself, her voice clear across the battlefield when she declared, “You don’t own me.” I saw the fury in his eyes, the flash of his blade when he lunged at her, and the way Liam intercepted him with such ferocity that even the steel rang with the force of the impact. That single moment ha
