The nightmare returned before dawn.
Aria jolted awake, breath hitching, fingers clawing into the mattress as if she were trying to hold onto the last pieces of the dream before they slipped away again. But the vision didn’t fade this time. Not fully. It clung to her—heavy, metallic, cold.
A wolf.
Huge.
Bound in iron that pulsed like a living creature.
And behind the bars—eyes she had seen before.
Golden. Burning.
Kael’s eyes.
Her throat tightened. A tremor crawled up her spine, and she pressed a palm to her forehead, trying to breathe past the dizziness that always followed one of her visions. This one felt different—sharper, clearer… urgent.
The morning bells hadn’t even rung yet, but she couldn’t stay in her room. Her legs carried her into the hallway—bare feet soft against the
