The city didn’t sleep after the moon bowed.
It watched.
Ari felt it in her bones as dawn crept over broken skylines and cracked windows. Power still hummed under her skin—raw, unsettled, but undeniably hers. Wolves lingered on rooftops, leaned against streetlamps, pretended to be human while their eyes tracked her every movement.
“They’re waiting,” Kai said as they crossed the street below the cathedral. “For instructions.”
“I didn’t ask for followers,” Ari muttered.
“That’s the problem,” Lennox replied quietly. “Neither did the first gods.”
Dante hadn’t spoken since the break.
He walked beside her like a shadow—close enough to protect, far enough to respect the boundary she’d torn into existence. The bond between them was still there, but different now. No longer a leash. More like
