The sky split open when Ivy crossed the threshold back into the realm of light.
She collapsed into Kael’s arms.
Not because she was weak—but because he was the only thing keeping her tethered.
“You came back,” he whispered.
“I told you I would.”
His arms tightened around her. He didn’t ask what she had seen. What she had endured. He didn’t need to.
The flames in her eyes told him everything.
For three days, Ivy slept.
And when she woke, everything was different.
The soldiers bowed deeper.
The elders stopped questioning.
Even the land responded to her differently—the flames that once threatened to consume her now curled gently across her skin like they had always belonged there.
She was no longer Ivy, the flameborn girl.
She was Ivy, the Flame Sovereign.
And they all knew it.
