Lyla’s first breath after the transformation was unlike any she had ever taken.
It wasn’t just air filling her lungs.
It was power.
A raw, humming energy coiled beneath her skin, spreading through her limbs like wildfire.
For a moment, she felt weightless as if her body no longer belonged to her, as if she had become something beyond flesh and blood.
The ground beneath her vibrated, as though the earth itself recognized the change inside her.
And then
She opened her eyes.
And the world was not the same.
The Marked Ones stood in a perfect circle around her.
Their silver eyes glowed in the dim light, their expressions a mix of reverence and fear.
Lyla pushed herself up, her body steady, yet unfamiliar.
The shadows did not just follow her anymore.
They moved with her.
Like they
