Sasha’s Pov
The wind shifted that night.
Not loud. Not violent. Just… different. Like the air had paused. Like the world knew something I didn’t.
A warning wrapped in silence.
I sat by the window of my chamber in the eastern wing of Eldros, wrapped in a midnight-blue shawl, watching the moonlight pour like silver milk over the garden. The statues below cast long shadows between the white-barked trees, their marble faces turned toward something I couldn’t see.
My uneasy flame stirred beneath my skin, prickling along my spine like a whispered scream.
Something was wrong.
I reached beneath the cushion, fingers closing around cool obsidian; Nashana’s dagger. Short, curved, runes etched along the hilt. Just in case, she’d said.
I didn’t realize how soon just in case would become right n
