Ella’s POV
The firelight quivered across the stone floor of the War Room as Remo knelt beside me, both of us exhausted but unable to sleep. I had been drawn back to a patch of floor where an ancient rune glowed faintly beneath our recent sigils, and the moment my fingertips brushed it, my vision fractured into something older. A woman stood in my place, but not me. Her hair was even darker, her posture regal and unbroken—not frightened like I had once been. I saw her in a glade of pale moonlight, her silver eyes glinting like water in a distant river. Her skin was unscarred, unmarred, but powerful—like she owned the land, not fought to claim it. She lifted her hand, and the forest bent gently before her, trees leaning as though in respect, wolves lying calm at her feet. She spoke somethi
