The air in Ashen Hollow crackled with tension, the once-serene town now a powder keg on the verge of explosion. The fractures between humans and supernaturals had deepened, and violence still simmered in the streets, lingering just beneath the surface. But worse than that, Lena could feel the leyline beneath her feet growing more unstable with each passing hour, its magic pulsing like a heartbeat on the brink of failure. Something had shifted, and it was becoming more apparent that the storm was coming—a war was inevitable.
Inside her small cottage, Lena stood at the window, staring out at the darkening sky. The horizon shimmered with strange lights—magical phenomena that had been occurring more frequently since the leyline began to destabilize. Bolts of electric blue lightning cracked ac
