The Blood Moon estate looked completely different when I approached through the forest shadows. Guard towers sprouted from courtyards where I'd once played as a child. Razor wire replaced the elegant hedges my mother used to tend.
The air felt thick with a dark energy. Giana had been busy during my absence, transforming my childhood home into something unrecognizable.
The crystal Elsa had given me pulsed with dark warmth against my ribs where it rested inside my jacket. Each heartbeat seemed to synchronize with its rhythm, creating an uncomfortable harmony that felt wrong.
But she'd made a crucial miscalculation in her defenses. The security was designed to repel conventional military assault, not someone desperate enough to use forbidden magic for infiltration.
I pulled the crystal fr
