登入Rebecca’s POVThe forest felt too open, after days of being trapped inside the shrine, the endless trees and dark sky above us should have felt comforting. Instead, every shadow seemed deeper. Every sound felt sharper.We had escaped, but none of us looked relieved.The small campfire burned in the center of our clearing, throwing orange light to our tired faces. Matthew sat nearby sharpening his blade in slow, steady strokes. Ezekiel remained on watch near the treeline, his posture relaxed but alert. Tyler sat opposite me, resting against a fallen tree, and I couldn't stop staring at his side.The wound should not have looked that good.Not yet.The flesh that was torn had almost completely closed. The swelling inside the bandage then had vanished. Even the color of his skin looked healthier.Tyler noticed me watching and smiled."You're doing it again." He said."What?" I asked."Looking at me like I've grown a second head." He continued.I looked away."You were dying." I cont
Rebecca's POVThe clearing outside the shrine felt a bit unreal. For days now, we were surrounded with stone, darkness, and endless corridors that seemed determined to never let us go. Now there was open air above my head.Trees looking toward the sky, moonlight reflecting through thick branches, the scent of the earth and the environment replaced the old smell of ancient ruins.It should have felt like freedom, instead, it felt like standing in the eye of a storm.Nobody spoke much after we left the shrine. We were exhausted, not the kind of exhaustion sleep could fix, the deeper kind. The kind that rested into your bones after too much grief.Tyler sat by a broad tree near the fire, adjusting the bandage under his shirt with care, the improvement in his condition was impossible to ignore.Only a day ago, he could barely stand, now he was moving on his own, still injured, still weak, but healing faster than he should have been.I caught him looking at his side again, his eyebrow
Rebecca’s POVThe shrine refused to let us go, every corridor was leading into another, every chamber opened into three more.Ancient stone walls turned around us like the side of a sleeping giant, closing tighter the deeper we went about. The shining runes scattered across the walls had almost stopped shining now, fluctuating like dying embers. Their weak light stretched shadows across the floor, making the shrine feel alive in a very wrong way.We had spent hours searching, hours trying every passage, every hidden alcove, every crack that looked wide enough to cover up a path.Nothing.The shrine always led us back to ourselves, like it wanted us trapped, like it was waiting for something, like we were just turning in circles.My mark burned under my shirt, not painfully. Just enough to remind me it was there.I knew there would be no more markers from Kael, no fresh cuts in the stone, no small arrangements of pebbles, no warnings scratched into walls.The scout's report had
Lira’s POVThe mansion never seemed to sleep anymore.Even during the quiet moments, there were always wounded warriors calling for water, healers rushing through corridors, or distant arguments breaking out somewhere beyond the walls.The healing wing carried all of it.Pain.Fear.Grief.I moved from cot to cot despite the pain I was feeling in my legs, checking bandages and offering medicine, but my thoughts kept going back to the same place.Kael.Every time I looked across the room and saw him sitting still at the far wall, my chest started feeling heavy.He was free now, no ropes, no guards, but he didn't look free. The bruise on his jaw was now black. His wrists were raw where the bindings had rubbed his skin. He looked very tired, he looked like a man who had been carrying too much for too long.A man trying not to break.Mira's man.The quiet warrior who used to carry extra supplies for injured recruits without being asked, the man who always listened more than he spoke,
Garrick's POVThe mansion was quieter than I noticed it usually was. It was not really peaceful, a lot of people were only exhausted. The kind of silence that happened over a battlefield after too many people had died.I stood in the doorway of the war room, watching Lily from across the chamber.The child sat exactly where we'd left her.Small, still and silent.Most children would have cried by now.Begged or screamed or asked questions.Lily did none of those things. Well, nothing about her felt like a child, according to the rumours I heard between the men.She simply sat with her knees pulled to her chest, staring at nothing. As though she already knew something the rest of us didn't.My men hated being near her, they tried not to show it, but I noticed.Every glance, every whispered conversation, every uneasy shift whenever she spoke.Especially after yesterday.The false bridge brings death and destruction.Those words had spread through the mansion faster than wildfire
Rebecca’s POV I took one step toward the silver-haired woman. Then another. The chamber seemed to quiet around me. Not truly silent. The shrine never was completely quiet. Ancient stones buzzed with old power. Black vines moving slowly along the floor. Somewhere deeper in the ruins, water was falling down steadily on the rocks. But everything else faded. Tyler leaned against Ezekiel with more than half of his body behind me. Matthew stood ready, claws partially extended, but none of them tried to stop me. The silver-haired woman waited. Motionless, her gray cloak moving gently despite the little air around us. The closer I came, the harder it became to breathe. She felt familiar, not because I knew her but because something inside me did. Questions kept running in my mind and I started spilling them out as I approached her. Who are you? Why do the Erased fear you? Why do you keep watching us? Am I really the false bridge? Before I could approach her fully, shadows cr
Tyler's POVEverything seemed like it was tormenting me. The pain from the cut was unbearable with every breath, move, and beat of my heart. It was only a bit fortunate that the bandages Rebecca had given me helped with the bleeding, although it couldn't completely stop it. The warmth of my blood c
Rebecca's POVIt felt like the ravine was never-ending.A gray mist swirled amidst the looming walls of rock, obscuring depth and making everything blend into shadows. Water dripped down rocky faces scarred with the brutal imagery of the Erased.Every carving felt like an eye.Watching.Waiting.Ju
Rebecca's POV The fog refused to go, it was just everywhere. It was visible in the ravine like burial ground fog, obvious around every stone, every tree, every broken piece of the world. One could only see a few yards away before everything was white again. It felt like we were walking through
Kael's POV The world had now gone quiet. Too quiet. Not the rain. Not the wind. Not the distant sound of thunder making rough noise through the mountains. Everything else. The battle was over. The shouting had stopped. All that remained was the sound of rain hitting the stone. And Mira's bod







