"Some ghosts don’t stay buried. Some walk back into your life when you least expect them—just as the fire is about to consume everything."
Pain was a dull ache in my side, a constant pulse reminding me of my own limits. The dagger had been laced with something more than steel. I could feel it, slow and creeping, curling through my veins like a second heartbeat.
I should have been resting. I should have been letting Asher handle the aftermath of the ambush. But that wasn’t who I was.
So I stood in the war room, bracing against the table, staring at the map of Verauno and the chaos unraveling at its borders. The city still burned in places, the battle unfinished.
The traitors were emboldened now, Edric’s strike cutting deeper than just flesh.
He wanted to prove that we were vulnerable.
