Lyra's POV
The forest did not return to life after the darkness withdrew. It should have. Night insects should have chirred. Wind should have whispered through the trees. Leaves should have rustled like nothing extraordinary had happened.
Instead, the clearing breathed… thinly. As though wounded. Ash drifted through the air like tired snow. Where lightning had struck, the earth still glowed faintly beneath scorched grass. Tree trunks smoldered in silver veins where my stormlight had burned through them. The ancient presence had retreated but its absence lingered like a scar.
Kaelan leaned heavily against me, his great head pressed to my neck. His massive body still trembled from exhaustion, each breath ragged as if his lungs had forgotten how to work without pain.
I shifted closer, bracing him with my own weight. I refused to let him fall. Not after everything he had endured.
