The stars were wrong.
Aria stood on the cliff's edge overlooking the valley below, but her attention wasn't on the moonlit trees or the howling wind—it was on the sky. The constellations had begun to shift, subtly, like the night itself was twisting. The stars pulsed in rhythm, and the air tasted of iron and fire.
Something inside her trembled.
"Aria," Tobias called gently from behind. "You feel it too, don't you?"
She nodded without turning.
It had started with a flicker—an unease beneath her ribs, like a shadow brushing against her soul. But now it grew louder, a resonance in her bones, as if something dark and ancient had awakened far to the north. Not just darkness, but power. Familiar in the worst way.
"Voryn is doing something," she murmured. "Something huge."
Marcus stepped to her side, his brow furrowed. "What do you sense?"
Aria closed her eyes.
