The moonlight flickered.
It wasn't a passing cloud this time—it trembled, fractured like a mirror touched by a crack, and for one breathless moment, the entire world seemed to still.
Aria jerked upright, her breath catching in her throat. Across the stone chamber, Caleb stirred, his arm slung protectively over her waist. But her wolf was already pacing inside her, restless. Wrong. Something was wrong.
Then she heard it—Elena's scream.
Aria didn't wait. She vaulted from the furs, barely pausing to throw on her cloak as she dashed through the dim corridors of the Moonstone Sanctuary. The air was thick, pulsing with magic gone sour. Torches flickered in their sconces, flaring blue for an instant, and then returning to normal.
She found Solene kneeling beside Elena in the eastern hall, where the roots of the old spirit tree threaded through the walls like veins of living light.
Only now… they weren't glowing. They were blackening. Wilting.
