The journey back to Alejandro’s kingdom was a nightmare. The messenger, a wiry man named Garrick, had been running for days, his body battered and his mind haunted by the horrors he had witnessed in Lucian’s fortress. The forest was dense and unforgiving, the shadows seeming to close in around him as he stumbled through. His breath came in ragged gasps, and his legs burned with every step, but he couldn’t stop. He had to deliver Lucian’s message—no matter the cost.
It had taken him nearly a week to make it this far, and he was running out of time. The parchment in his pocket felt like a lead weight, a reminder of the danger he was carrying. Lucian’s words were scrawled across it in jagged, angry letters, a chilling promise of wrath and destruction. Garrick didn’t need to read it again to
