Chapter 80. Beneath the Circle

The great hall had never been this full.

It wasn’t a council meeting. It wasn’t a war briefing. But the air was sharper than during any of those, because this time, no one knew exactly who they were standing with—or against.

Word had spread. Not just of Aria’s return, but of what had happened in the yard, in the children’s bones, in the compound’s broken wards. No one dared name it directly, but the unease said enough. She hadn’t just crossed some boundary. She had dissolved it.

The firepit burned low in the center of the hall, smoke curling like a serpent toward the rafters. Around it, the inner circle stood—Cassandra, Kade, Jules, the remaining lieutenants, the elders. Aria stood apart, not invited, but not stopped either.

Cassandra looked tired. Her eyes were sunken, her shoulders tight, but her voice didn’t waver when she spoke.

“We have three confirmed resonances since her return,” she said. “And five more exhibiting signs. The pattern is accelerat