The body had not moved.
Darin lay where he fell, unnaturally still, as if life had been removed rather than taken. No blood pooled beneath him. No final breath rattled through his chest. Just emptiness.
Like something had used him…
…and then left.
No one dared to touch him.
The courtyard remained frozen long after the chaos ended. Wolves stood scattered in tense formations, their instincts screaming danger even in the absence of movement. The air itself felt altered—thicker, heavier, like an unseen pressure weighed down on every living thing.
Aria had not moved either.
She stood at the center of it all, her gaze fixed on Darin’s lifeless form, but her mind was somewhere else entirely.
You carry it.
The door.
He is waking.
The words repeated in her head like a curse that refused
