The stars above flickered like dying embers, their cold light unable to touch the darkness that pressed against the ruins.
Lyla sat on her throne of broken stone and shadows, her silver eyes scanning the horizon.
The wind carried the scent of blood.
The remnants of the war with the Elders still clung to the land, but the battle was no longer her concern.
Because something else had awakened.
Something that had been waiting.
And now, it had begun to move.
She could feel it in the air, in the way the shadows stretched longer, the way the night seemed to last just a little too long.
The Marked Ones had noticed it too.
They did not speak of it.
They did not need to.
They were warriors.
And warriors knew when something was hunting them.
The Marked Ones moved through the ruins in sil
