The silence after the storm was the loudest thing Aria had ever heard.
Rowan's body lay crumpled on the moss-laced floor, chest rising and falling too evenly—unnaturally so. Caleb still knelt beside him, breath shallow, one hand hovering as if afraid to touch him again.
Then Rowan's fingers twitched.
Elena gasped. Solene stepped forward with her staff glowing faintly, but even her magic seemed hesitant, like it recoiled from the presence around him.
Aria felt it before she saw it—something cold brushing against her soul. Like fingers trailing ice down her spine.
Rowan's eyes snapped open.
But they weren't his eyes.
For a moment, they were… and then they weren't. A second layer shimmered behind the green, a flicker of obsidian threaded with voidlight. He sat up slowly, his movement too fluid, too graceful to be human.
"Elena?" Rowan whispered, voice thick with confusion.
