The Shattered Clearing
The forest was too quiet.
Ash smoldered where the hunters had fled, leaving the clearing broken and stained with blood. Lena sat slumped against Dominic’s chest, her breath shallow, her crowns dimming above her head like candles flickering in a storm. The taste of iron coated her tongue. She had unleashed too much, again.
Dominic’s hand pressed to her back as if by force of will he could hold her together. His jaw clenched, fury burning in his golden eyes. “It should have been me. I should’ve stopped the traitor before he struck.”
Kael leaned against a fallen trunk, shadows curling lazily around him, his smirk thin but sharp. “Stop beating yourself. The betrayal was always coming. It wasn’t your sword he wanted—it was hers.” He tilted his chin toward Lena, his ga
