Athena's POV
I stood at the heart of the ruin (where the former King and Kieran had fought) , surrounded by ash, broken stone, and the bones of a kingdom that had nearly slipped from my grasp. The air still pulsed with the echo of old magic,.fractured, bruised, but not dead.
Not yet.
Not while I still breathed.
The Moon Temple loomed behind me, its once-pristine walls scorched and cracked. The throne where the Binded King now sat in eternal chains pulsed faintly, his life force siphoned to fuel the protective wards I had woven into the marrow of the realm. A fitting prison. A fitting warning.
But a broken temple would not hold a kingdom.
It was time to rebuild.
I lifted my hand, calling the silver fire to me. Moonlight coiled around my wrist like a living serpent, humming with ancient power. I turned to the wolves gathered before me—the survivors, the loyal, the wounded, and the uncertain. All eyes rested on me, waiting to see what I would become now that Johan was gone.
