POV: Arken
They think they won.
I tasted Alex’s power on the wind tonight—raw, uncontrolled, magnificent. It tore through my shadows like wildfire through dry bones. For a heartbeat, even I felt it.
And I smiled.
Because now I know exactly how far she can reach.
The void around me pulsed as I stepped from between realms, my form coalescing within the throne chamber of shadow and bone. Black fire crawled along the walls in slow, living veins. The air bowed to me as it always does.
Fear is loyal like that.
Kneeling before me, my generals waited in trembling silence—wraiths, fallen wolves, corrupted Fae, creatures long erased from living memory. They did not look up.
They never do.
“She nearly broke,” one whispered.
“Yes,” I murmured. “And next time… she will.”
I moved to the great
