The palace felt colder.
Not in temperature—but in presence.
Something invisible had shifted between its walls, something fragile and once unbreakable now stretched thin, fraying at the edges.
Aria felt it the moment she woke.
Not the mark.
Not the darkness.
Not even the distant, suffocating awareness of the rising force beyond the Moon.
No—
This was closer.
Sharper.
More personal.
Kael.
She sat up slowly, her breath uneven, her hand instinctively moving to her side.
The mark was still there.
Alive.
Waiting.
It pulsed faintly beneath her fingers, as if sensing her thoughts.
As if reacting to them.
“You feel it too, don’t you?” she whispered.
It answered.
Not with words.
But with a quiet, knowing presence.
Aria clenched her jaw and pushed herself to her feet.
She neede
