Aetherion Academia #1: Shadows of Rebirth
When I entered my room, the candle was out, the window closed, the wards intact.
But the lotus was there.
White petals, perfect, unblemished, the stem cut with surgical precision. And on the petals, written in something that gleamed wet in the darkness, a message.
The third death opens the gate. The sequence must complete. The Queen of the Wastelands will wear her crown of blood, or she will wear nothing at all.
I stared at the words, feeling them settle in my chest like stones dropped into deep water, like anchors cast into a sea that had no bottom.
Sikat na Kabanata