The air was acrid with ash and filled with echoing silence, as if the world had stopped to take a breath. After the dread resurrection of alphas long lost and thundering revenant warlords, we figured that was as bad as it got. The Wolf King had recoiled. Our wards had held—barely. But now as the peak of Selvarin bled beneath two moons, it suffered a second assault with a snap like breaking hearts.
I felt it first in the bone: a shiver like some distant star's weak pulse. My dagger rattled in my grip. Kael was behind me, roaring as he dodged another blow from a revenant. Mara and Dorian sang at the crater's broken lip. Every ally strained against exhaustion.
And then I heard it: the sound of ancient crystal snapping.
