KAEL – POV
I didn't remember how many bodies I broke on the way to her. The blood on my hands wasn't mine. The burn on my shoulder where the fire licked through my armor? Didn't matter.
All I knew was the sound of her howl—low, spiraling, shaking the very bones of the stronghold. It had rooted itself in my chest and dragged me forward like a chain I would never break.
I burst into the corridor leading east. The floor was torn. Claw marks scraped across the stone, smoke staining the ceiling. Light spilled out ahead—pure, silver, pulsing.
Moonlight magic.
I ran toward it like a dying man breathing.
The doors to the sanctuary were half open. Cracked stone beneath them. Runes melted and scorched. My heartbeat was a war drum.
Then I saw her.
Ayla stood at the center of the shattered sanctuary.
The moonlight from the dome above cast her in ethereal white. Her runes blazed along her arms, her throat, her chest. Her eyes—not silver anymore. White-hot. Wolf and goddess in one body.
