The air turned heavy, like the world itself held its breath.
Rose’s body remained still in sleep, nestled between her mates beneath the open ruin’s arch. But her mind…
Her mind had already been pulled into something else.
Darkness bled in around the edges of her dream. The sky cracked, the ground twisted, and heat pulsed like a second heartbeat in her chest. One moment, she stood in a familiar grove under the stars—the next, that grove had withered to ash. Trees became spears of bone. The stars vanished. The world tilted.
This wasn’t a dream.
This was a nightmare. A crafted one.
And she wasn’t alone in it.
“You fall quickly,” came a voice behind her—smooth, dark, and cold enough to make her breath hitch. “I barely touched your thoughts.”
Rose turned sharply.
A man stood at the edg
