The moment my feet touched the soil of my world again, I felt it—raw, ruptured magic rippling beneath the surface like a wounded heartbeat.
The portal slammed shut behind us with a thundering crack, its last wisps of light vanishing into the dark sky. We were back.
Ash choked the air. The ground reeked of death and scorched stone. The wind howled as if mourning what once thrived here. My once-sacred land was a graveyard.
I stepped forward slowly, my boots sinking slightly into soft, broken earth. The trees were skeletal, the sky a bruised gray. The palace walls stood in the distance—half-collapsed, black vines crawling up its cracked spires like claws clinging to a corpse.
Lucas stepped beside me, silent.
I couldn't look at him.
I didn't want to.
Not after everything.
Not after I gave him my trust—my body—and he still lied.
Still hid.
Still betrayed.
I turned to him, barely able to keep my hands from trembling. Not from fear. From fury.
