*Aria*
War didn’t arrive with fanfares.
It seeped into the stones.
The days after our bargain with Kade blurred into a constant hum of movement—boots on floors, messengers running, hushed arguments in corners—but under it all was one steady, unspoken truth:
We were marching toward a witch.
For the first time since I’d woken up in this second life, we weren’t just reacting to her.
We were planning to knock on her door.
The joint council met in Lucian’s war room.
Blackmoon on one side of the table.
Nightfang on the other.
It was like putting two different storms in the same bowl and asking them not to spill.
Lucian stood at the head, hands braced on the edge of the big map he’d unrolled again.
Kade lounged at the far end, one hip against the table, arms loosely crossed.
Between
