LOGINThe stillness stretched on for several long, agonizing minutes before anyone dared move. Gianna remained kneeling at the center of the chamber, Luna still cradled against her chest, the golden glow slowly fading from her daughter's wrist back into its usual faint, steady pulse. The healers lowered their hands one by one, exhausted and trembling, several of them sinking to the floor entirely, their reserves of strength utterly depleted."Did it work?" Gianna asked, her voice hoarse, barely daring to hope.Corwin moved carefully toward the chamber's entrance, past Nolan who still stood guard with his sword raised, and peered out through one of the narrow windows lining the corridor. What he saw made him exhale slowly, some of the tension easing from his shoulders, though not entirely."It's retreated," he said. "Not gone. But it's pulled back toward the fissure, as though reassessing."Nolan lowered his sword slightly, moving to look for himself, and Gianna rose unsteadily to her feet,
Gianna's lungs burned as she and Nolan sprinted across the settlement grounds, weaving between fleeing servants and wounded soldiers being carried toward safety, the palace looming ahead of them with its doors still heavily guarded, exactly as they'd left them. Behind them, the ground continued to groan and shudder, the towering darkness still slowly, methodically pulling itself free from the widening fissure, and Gianna didn't dare look back to see how much closer it had drawn."Faster," Nolan urged, though she was already running as hard as her exhausted body would allow, her chest heaving with effort and fear in equal measure.They burst through the palace's main doors to find Fenna's chosen healers still stationed exactly where they'd been left, forming a protective circle around the nursery, their faces pale with terror at the sounds of chaos still echoing from outside."Is she safe?" Gianna demanded, pushing past them toward Luna's crib."She's been sleeping through all of it,"
The tremor that shook the settlement dwarfed everything that had come before it. Soldiers lost their footing entirely, shadow creatures and defenders alike stumbling as the ground heaved beneath them. Gianna grabbed Nolan's arm to steady herself, watching in horror as the largest fissure, the one directly beneath where the healer knelt bleeding, split wide open with a groan like tearing stone."Get back!" Elmund shouted, dragging two soldiers away from the widening crack just as a wave of cold, suffocating air rolled up from the darkness below, extinguishing torches and dimming the already weak morning light.The healer laughed weakly, blood bubbling at her lips. "You cannot stop what's coming," she said, her voice growing fainter even as the layered, ancient resonance beneath it grew stronger, as though whatever controlled her was speaking directly now, no longer bothering to filter itself through her failing human vessel. "He has waited too long to be denied now.""Who?" Gianna dema
The battle raged on through the morning, the settlement grounds churned into mud and ash, bodies of fallen shadow creatures dissolving into wisps of dark smoke the moment they were struck down, only to be replaced moments later by fresh forms rising from the ever-widening cracks in the earth. Gianna's arms burned with exhaustion, golden light flickering weaker with each strike as her reserves of power began to wane under the relentless assault."We can't keep this pace forever," Elmund shouted, cutting down another shadow form before it could reach a cluster of retreating soldiers, his own breathing ragged with effort. "We need another approach!"Nolan fought beside him, his blade flashing with practiced precision, though even his considerable skill was beginning to show signs of strain. "Fenna!" he called out, his voice carrying over the chaos. "Is there anything, any weakness we can exploit?"Fenna, positioned near the palace steps with the remaining healers, had been weaving protec
Gianna gathered the settlement's elders within the hour, Sable among them, their weathered faces carrying a shared, grave fear that immediately confirmed the gravity of whatever had just announced itself through that terrible, ancient horn."Tell us everything," Gianna said, Luna held protectively against her chest as she stood before the small gathering within the palace's great hall, Nolan at her side, Corwin and Fenna nearby, every face turned toward Sable as she stepped forward to address the growing crowd."The Hollow Court," Sable began, her voice carrying the weight of stories passed down through countless generations, stories she had clearly never expected to speak aloud with such urgent, immediate relevance, "was banished from the living world centuries ago. A collection of corrupted spirits and fallen magic users who turned entirely toward darkness, seeking power through means so terrible that our ancestors joined together across every surviving fae community at the time to
The sudden darkness of the necklace left Gianna feeling hollow in a way that reminded her uncomfortably of the masking spell Fenna had cast weeks earlier, that same terrible sense of something vital having been severed entirely, leaving her more alone than she'd felt since this entire nightmare began."Wren?" she whispered one more time, clutching the dark pearls desperately against her palm, though no response came, no faint warmth, no flicker of connection answering her desperate call."She's gone," Gianna said finally, her voice breaking as she looked up at Nolan and Corwin, both watching her with matching expressions of concern. "I don't know if she's simply resting, as she said, or if something worse has happened to her entirely."Corwin's expression grew thoughtful, troubled, as he considered this development. "Spirits don't simply lose their strength this suddenly," he said slowly, "not from ordinary exertion alone. Wren has guided you through multiple crises already without th
Gianna turned around slowly.Nolan was still standing by the window, his expression unreadable in the firelight."You found him," she said."I did.""Who was it?""A council member named Broderick. He holds a seat in the lower chamber and oversees trade regulations for the outer markets."Gianna fr
Chapter FiveThe King didn't look at her again.He moved to the head of the table, sat, and the entire banquet resumed around him, everyone pretending the last five minutes had been completely normal.Gianna walked back to their seats with Cyrus's hand clamped around her elbow the entire way.He l
Chapter TwoShe was having the best dream of her life.She didn't know what it was about – just that it was warm, and she was laughing, and nothing hurt.Then she felt eyes on her.Gianna's eyes snapped open.A man was sitting in the chair right beside her bed, close enough that she could see the i
Chapter OneThe gates swung open at dusk. Gianna heard the patrol return before she saw it – boots on gravel, wolves shifting back to skin, the familiar chaos of Valemont's warriors coming home.She was standing on the upper terrace with a glass of wine when she saw Cyrus walk through the main ga







