Nyssa’s POV:
I woke with the weight of silence pressing down on my chest.
Ryvarn lay beside me, arm draped across my waist, breathing slow and steady. The warmth of his skin should’ve comforted me. It didn’t. Something in the air felt cold, thin, like the breath before a storm.
I slipped out from under the covers and padded across the room, the stone floors biting at my feet. Outside the window, the sky was still dark, kissed with the pale gray before dawn. The raven’s message from last night echoed in my head.
Ashenborne.
I whispered it again under my breath, like maybe the wind would answer me. It didn’t. It only carried that name back to me, like it belonged here more than I did.
Ashenborne.
You are not forgotten.
The circle begins again.
I didn’t know what it meant. Not really
