The world was ending.
Kael could feel it in the air—in the way the wind no longer carried the scent of life, but something heavier… something fractured. The balance that had once held the territories together was unraveling, thread by thread, and at the center of it all—
Was her.
Aria.
He stood on the edge of another ruined land, his boots sinking into cracked earth that still trembled faintly beneath him. What had once been a thriving settlement was now reduced to silence and dust. The survivors huddled together in small groups, their eyes filled with fear—not just of what had happened…
But of who had done it.
Kael’s jaw tightened.
“They’re saying it was the Queen,” one of the warriors murmured behind him, his voice low, uncertain. “That she’s… lost.”
Kael didn’t turn.
“She’s not
