Leona’s POV
The air was still, but heavy, as though the mansion itself had taken a breath after centuries of suffocating darkness. The walls that once seemed alive with malicious intent now crumbled around us, their jagged remains falling like dust in the wake of the ritual. The very ground beneath my feet felt different—lighter, as though the mansion’s oppressive weight had finally lifted. The wind whispered through the broken windows, a soft, almost gentle sound that felt like a distant echo of the chaos that had preceded it.
I stood next to Zane, my heart still racing, my breath shallow, as we surveyed the destruction that surrounded us. The house, once grand and imposing, was now reduced to a skeleton of its former self. The grand staircase lay in ruins, and the once-pristine walls w
