Chapter 104: The Gathering Storm
The sky above the plateau was no longer clear.
Dark clouds churned in slow spirals, bleeding into one another like ink dropped in water. The moon, once a beacon of serenity, had vanished behind a suffocating veil of shadow. Only a strange silvery glow clung to the edges of the mountaintop, bathing everything in a pale, ghostlike shimmer that made the trees look skeletal and the rocks like ancient tombstones.
Luna stood at the cliff’s edge, her chest rising and falling in uneven breaths. Her hand was still warm from Ryder’s, but her heart was no longer calm. Something had shifted—something ancient, massive, and awake. The moment the serpent’s mark had seared itself into the earth, the energy around them changed. It wasn’t just the scent of danger in the a
