The air was still thick with ash when Ivy walked through the shattered gates of the Citadel.
Guards parted instinctively. Some bowed their heads. Others stared at her with wide, uncertain eyes. She felt their fear—not just of the beast that had attacked, but of her. Of what she had become.
She didn’t blame them.
Her bones still hummed with Chaos. The taste of that energy lingered on her tongue—wild, ancient, unrestrained. It was seductive, dangerous. And it had saved them all.
But now they were all asking the same question behind closed lips.
At what cost?
Kael walked beside her in silence, his face hard and unreadable. The kiss they shared before the battle still burned in her mind—fierce, desperate, grounding. But the world hadn’t stopped for their moment. It had only shifted.
Emb
