Elara didn't sleep that night.
How could she?
Her skin still hummed with golden fire, the dagger that had vanished into her chest still echoing beneath her ribs. Every time she blinked, she saw visions—flickering shadows of ancient wolves running through a forest drenched in starlight, of a woman crowned in flame, holding a staff of bone and light.
And at the edge of it all… darkness.
A presence watching.
Waiting.
Kael and Riven hadn't left her side since the Vault. They'd quietly stood watch outside her chamber while she bathed in silence, while she dressed in a new robe of deep crimson, the color of embers and blood. She didn't ask where it came from. She had a feeling it had been waiting for her.
By dawn, she knew what she had to do.
"Summon the Council," she told them as she stepped into the main hall of the stone manor, her voice clearer than it had ever been. "They need to see me with their own eyes. And they need to hear the truth."
