Chapter Twenty-Nine – Devouring the Night

The hollow still carried the echo of battle.

Ash clung to the moss, smeared in dark streaks where bodies had fallen. The broken stones of the walls still held the heat of spent spells, the faint glow of runes burned half into nothing. Outside, the marsh whispered restlessly—fog shifting, reeds hissing, water swallowing reflected moonlight in tiny, trembling ripples.

Selene stood at the threshold, bare feet on cold stone, staring out into the shrouded world beyond.

The air felt thinner out here, almost brittle. Every breath tasted of smoke and iron, of distant storms gathering where she could not yet see them. Somewhere far off, an owl screamed. Somewhere closer, the wards she’d woven into the marsh muttered like uneasy ghosts.

Behind her, she could feel them.

Rowan’s heat like a hearth at her back, Lucien’s cool presence like shadow against the side of her neck—even when they didn’t touch her, she felt them. The bond tugged at h