Sera's POV
The Crimson Court rose from the mountains like a nightmare carved in stone.
I'd seen fortresses before—old human castles, ruined and crumbling, their stones weathered by centuries of wind and rain. This was nothing like that. The walls were black basalt, smooth as glass, rising hundreds of feet into the grey sky with impossible precision. Towers pierced the clouds like claws reaching for the moon, their spires so sharp they seemed designed to draw blood from the heavens themselves. And everywhere, everywhere, there were eyes.
Vampires lined the walls. Dozens of them, pale and beautiful and utterly still, watching our approach with hunger in their ancient eyes. They didn't move. Didn't blink. Didn't breathe. They just... stared, like statues waiting to come alive.
"Don't meet
