POV: Aria
The sky cracked open like glass.
Silver veins of lightning arced across the clouds, illuminating twisted, towering shadows that had no business being there—neither mortal nor moon-born, but ancient things pulled from the marrow of the world. Watchers.
I’d read about them, once. Guardians of the seal. Creatures from the old bloodlines that existed before wolves, before witches. Before anything. And now, they were awake.
I gripped Kael’s hand tighter. “This isn’t just about us anymore.”
“No,” he said, voice low. “It never was.”
The Echo Bride stood at the edge of the sacred tree’s roots, her veil glistening with droplets of light like rain that hadn’t yet fallen. The tree groaned behind her—alive and in pain.
“You’ve done enough!” I shouted at her. “You’ve broken the seal.”
