Talia's POVI woke before dawn because something stirred me awake—dead silence, the kind where I don't feel anything at all, just a switch, as if the air had ditched the world I was familiar with.I sat upright in bed, my breath caught somewhere between sleep and a shout. My room still sat in darkness, the curtains barely moving, and my arms were on fire.I rolled up my sleeves and looked. Marks, faint and glowing, ran like starlight veins from my wrists to the bend of my elbows, pulsing in time with my heart—or something deeper than my heart. Something older.The stone. I haven't touched it, haven't even seen it, but I can feel its pull, like a tune I've never heard yet somehow recognize. It's changing me, and I don't know how long this will last, or who I'll be by the time it's finished.I run my fingers over the glowing trails. They're hot, full of life, and yet not painful. "Bran?" I whisper, though I know he's not here. Some part of me expects him to come barging in, the way he u
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