The Hunger Before Creation
The darkness did not arrive.
It had always been there.
Ridge felt it the moment reality stilled—when time froze mid-fracture, when the shattered sky hung suspended like broken glass caught in an unseen hand. The Primogenitor recoiled, its vast form trembling for the first time since its emergence, tendrils drawing inward as if instinctively protecting itself.
Fear radiated from it.
Not fear of Ridge.
Fear of what had awakened.
Aria’s silver essence tightened around Ridge’s core, her presence no longer just beside him but within him, bound deeper than blood, deeper than soul. “Ridge…” she whispered, voice unsteady. “This presence… it doesn’t feel like destruction.”
He swallowed, molten Heartfire pulsing uneasily beneath his skin. Frost crawled along his sp
