The dust didn’t settle; it vibrated, suspended in a room where the air had turned into a pressurized soup of silver-mercury stink and ancient, predatory intentions.I stood up slowly, the shards of the Citadel’s glass ceiling crunching beneath my boots like the bones of the old order. My dead left arm swung heavily, jarring against my ribs—a leaden slab of necrotic stone that felt like a cold anchor pulling at my spine.I looked at my reflection in the polished silver floor. The gray, waxy petrification had officially claimed my collarbone. Every time I inhaled, I heard it: a microscopic, rhythmic ga-chi, ga-chi—the sound of my own lungs grinding against stone.I signed for his life, and now the mountain is building a tomb inside my chest."Mommy..."Leo’s stuffy, nasal whisper was the only thing that kept me from shattering. He was standing five feet away, his small peacoat shredded, gold static licking at the silver floor like liquid fire. He wasn't looking at me. He was looking at
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