The air didn’t change
Not even after the Herald was driven back.
Through the glade, silence tried to reclaim the space but silence had no hold here now.
Crystal stood at the edge of where the stone had shattered, her mark burning like a sun beneath her skin. Her hands trembled, from restraint. Every instinct screamed to run forward. To fight but something deeper held her back.
Ryder landed hard against a tree trunk, bark cracking behind him. Blood streaked his temple but his eyes remained locked on the Herald. “Stay behind me,” he ordered again.
“I’m not leaving,” Crystal replied.
“I know,” he muttered, bracing himself again.
The Herald rose from the impact, its cloak torn and smoldering, armor split at one side with smoke pouring from the side he had been struck like fog from a ga
