Ivy was asleep, but her body felt weightless, suspended in something deeper than rest.
No dreams.
Only void.
Then—
Flame.
She stood barefoot in a realm of shifting shadows and embers. The sky above her was cracked glass. The ground pulsed like a heart. And ahead of her, rising from black smoke, stood the one person she feared and longed to understand.
Her brother.
He looked the same—eyes like fire opals, a scar down his jaw, and hands that bled ash.
“I’ve been waiting,” he said.
“This isn’t real.”
“It’s real enough.”
“You lied to me,” Ivy said, stepping closer. “You said the seal wanted a vessel. You never said it wanted a god.”
“It doesn’t want a god,” he murmured. “It wants a keeper. A ruler. And a reaper.”
“I’m not here to rule or reap.”
“You were born for it, Ivy. That’s
