Chapter 18. Enemy in the Shadows

The attack came at moonrise.

Neriah awoke with a start, the sense of wrongness already pressing on her chest. It was as if the air itself had thickened, charged with a static that prickled her skin and set every hair on end. She shifted upright, her heart hammering in her throat. The darkness was absolute, broken only by a faint silver haze pouring through the high windows of her chamber. For a moment, she simply listened—to the wind hissing across the Temple’s eaves, to her own breath, and to the peculiar, unnatural silence outside her door.

There were supposed to be guards posted just beyond the threshold—two of Kalen’s most trusted, stationed there after the last assassination threat. But now, there was only stillness, too deep, too perfect.

Then: a sound. Not the expected shuffle of armor or the low murmur of brothers-in-arms. This was a single, deliberate footstep, quiet as a cat’s but heavy with intent. And not from the hallway. From within her room.