POV: Alex
Riley didn’t cry.
She stood in the ruined nursery with Damieon pressed to her chest, his soft whimpers the only sound in the wreckage. The silver glow of the moon still lingered on the stone floor like a fading scar, but the air had gone unnaturally still—like the world itself was holding its breath.
I had never seen my sister that way before.
Not broken.
Not afraid.
Dangerously calm.
Elara’s hands hovered inches from Damieon’s chest, afraid to touch the mark branded into his skin. “The sigil is dormant for now,” she whispered. “But it will awaken again. Arken tethered himself to the boy’s life force.”
Riley’s jaw tightened. “Then he just made the worst mistake of his existence.”
Mason shifted beside me, every muscle coiled tight with fury. “Tell me how to kill him.”
El
