hadn't slept since th

pers in back alleys and behind dusty stained-glass windows. Someone had

d. The ground still trembled faintly beneath her boots, as if the wor

s beneath her skin glowed faintly

ispered. "Something

"And the world w

rrow, the new history teacher, dressed in gray wool

rprised to see

ting to believe no one in this

ghtly. "Good girl. Be

it candles instead

ad was pounding - not from stress, but from memory, old and foreign

. Not of Halemoor - but of

ies, there were the Twelve - clans that ruled not through tyranny, but through sacred blood. You, Kaia, were born of

me what I am without telling me

ng it is harder

found a lett

en. Unfol

a

e. But I can't stay silent

with your father before Verenth fell. You were promised to him in bloo

m always ends - the eas

san

t know who

.. desperate. And ma

ight, s

allowed what had once been towers, and the air shimmered

he shadows, cloak wrapp

ruth," she sai

he

enth, had been murdered not by humans, but by on

t the heiress of Verenth, no matter the cost. And when the city burned, Se

h doesn't just protect. It binds. It enslaves

"And how do

horns. You bleed truth into its glass. And if y

f it's

nsumes

, Kaia left

ts of Hollowmere - a place buried beneath Halemo

silver knife. The air smelled of stone and old mag

a circle of runes

k. Rippling

ached, bla

yself," she

to her palm, blood f

crea

e. A psychic shriek that

t as she was, but as she had

n in c

ons

avi

ss spid

shatt

eyes, she was lying

nds wer

umming - not ch

at the door w

ke it,"

reathing hea

it bind you. Let

need pr

rward. "No. But y

ed her something

r, with a drop of her bl

is t

ow you what they kept from you. But onc

her finger

rossed the poin