The first scream came at dawn.
It split the sky like a c***k of thunder.
Not from the wolves.
Not from Ivy’s warriors.
But from the earth itself.
“The ground is splitting!” someone yelled.
Kael drew his sword, stepping in front of Ivy as the world trembled beneath their boots. Magic pulsed through the soil—thick, corrupted, like poison crawling into their bones.
“They’re here,” Liora whispered, her fingers glowing with defensive wards.
Ivy stepped forward, hair billowing in the wind, flames beginning to lick around her armor.
She saw them.
Across the battlefield.
Like a tidal wave of darkness, stretching from horizon to horizon.
The Shadow King’s army.
Wolves with ash-colored fur and soulless black eyes. Flameborn warriors in cracked crimson armor. Lucien riding a beast that l
