The Seed of Solstice
The air in the hidden alcove was thick with the chilling scent of corrupted essence, Lyra’s shallow breaths barely stirring the stillness. Kieran cradled her, his own formidable pureblood strength feeling woefully inadequate against the insidious poison now coursing through her veins. The green-black tendrils pulsed visibly beneath her skin, mirroring the malevolent haze that had enveloped the Obsidian Heart. The mate bond, his very lifeline to her, was a frayed, painful whisper, barely transmitting her essence, which flickered like a dying ember.
He pressed his ear to her chest, listening to the erratic thrum of her heart, a counterpoint to the distant, echoing sounds of Elias’s forces systematically purging the Shadowmoon caves. Every groan, every distant roar, was
