Chapter 8. Airenna’s Warning

The tower chamber was thick with the scent of smoldering embers and cold iron, a combination that prickled Lora’s senses the moment she stepped inside. Sunlight filtered through the narrow window in a single, unbroken shaft, illuminating drifting motes of dust like suspended stars.

Lora sat on the low stone ledge, one hand pressed to the smooth metal bands at her throat, feeling the dull, persistent throb where Kai’s mark lay hidden beneath her skin. Her other wrist remained wrapped in coarse linen, stained a dull red from the ceremony’s failure. Even as she inhaled, her lungs tingled with a faint sting—a reminder that every breath was watched, measured, recorded.

Below her, the terraces of Elysor fanned out in meticulous tiers of ivory stone, each rooftop polished until it gleamed in the hard morning light. The streets wound between these terraces like silver ribbons, barely audible this early in the day. From up here, the city looked serene and flawless, a jewel set ag