The moment the Duke placed the blindfold over Ahce's eyes, the air itself seemed to recoil.
"Remember, Ahce," the Duke's tone was calm, but there was a certain gravity beneath it, ancient, immovable, like stone pressed against her chest. "The test is not meant to measure strength, but survival. Every heir of the Pentecase family faces the same path, alone. You either return with the blood awakened… or not at all."
Those words clung to her, heavy and final, long after the ground beneath her feet dissolved into nothingness.
When the blindfold was removed, the world had changed.
Is this a secret realm?
