The darkness didn't simply fill the library—it swallowed it. Thick, unnatural, sentient. Rowan tightened his grip around Eira, his instincts screaming even before the temperature dropped. Books shuddered on their shelves, pages fluttering in wind that came from nowhere.
And at the center of it all, Eira stood frighteningly still.
Her hair lifted as if underwater, tendrils of shadow curling around her feet, rising, twisting, forming shapes that dissolved before becoming whole. Rowan reached for her face, cupping her cheek.
"Eira. Look at me."
Slowly, she did.
Her eyes—usually silver-blue—now shimmered with an abyssal glow, like moons eclipsed by something vast and ancient. She blinked, and the glow receded just enough for her to find his outline.
"Rowan…" Her voice trembled, but not entirely with fear. "It's inside the seal. Something is breaking through."
The voice drifted again through the room, threading between the collapsing flickers of candlelight.
