Chapter 26. City of Dusk

They didn’t stop running when the trees thinned. They didn’t stop when the ground turned to slate and the night air changed its taste—from pine and ash to iron and rain. Rael kept a step ahead, a shadow that carried its own gravity. Lora kept pace out of spite, and because if she let herself fall behind, the forest would remember she wasn’t welcome in it anymore.

They topped a rise and the world below answered the sky. Two moons hung low—one pale as a blade, the other the color of smoke—and their light ran in bright veins through a city crouched on water. The light didn’t sit on the roofs; it bled along channels and under bridges, rippling in narrow canals that braided the streets like arteries.

“Welcome to Volamed,” Rael said, quiet enough that the word didn’t travel far. “Dusk doesn’t shout.”

“Looks like it broods.” Lora pressed a palm against her ribs. The mark under her skin had a voice tonight, a slow drum that didn’t match her own pulse. “And collects rivers.