LILA’S POV
The victory should have felt like relief.
It should have felt like triumph.
But as the last echoes of battle faded and the forest slowly returned to life, something inside me refused to settle.
Because Ryker hadn’t come.
I stood in the clearing long after the others began to disperse, my wings half-folded, golden energy dim but restless beneath my skin. The scent of burnt shadows still lingered in the air, thick and unnatural, like something that refused to fully leave.
Nathan stayed beside me, silent, his presence steady.
“You feel it too, don’t you?” I asked quietly, eyes fixed on the treeline.
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “Yeah,” he said. “That wasn’t an attack… it was a message.”
A slow chill slid down my spine.
Not a battle.
A warning.
Or worse… a measure
