Prologue
The dream is always the same.
We’re all in a cave, hiding from the Ashendorians. The air is thick with the scent of sweat and fear, and every breath feels heavier than the last. I’m talking to Elyndra, Nyssira, Selvayne, and Kaelith, trying to devise a strategy to save my people. The shadows in the cave grow long as I speak, the flickering light of the fire casting eerie shapes on the walls. Everything went south the moment we left. We were supposed to eliminate the Kalthorne bloodline, their last heir. For the first time since I’ve been dragged into this, I… hesitated. Faltered. For that very reason, the cost was a life.
I swore to myself it would be the last time I put the people I care about in harm’s way. The weight of that promise hangs over me, but it’s a weight I can never outrun.
Veylin is calling out to Sylphorne, trying to get Taren back to Solarae. I’ve never seen him so desperate. His voice shakes with a mix of frustration and fear, each word laced with an urgency that feels foreign. His calm and collected nature is gone, replaced by a raw panic. He’s unraveling, slipping closer to the edge, and I can feel it too—like he’s on the verge of losing everything he holds dear. I can’t help but wonder if he already has.
The thought hits me with a jolt, and suddenly it takes everything in me not to snap. He killed my sister. I shouldn’t have hesitated. I should’ve ended his life when I had the chance, when the decision was still mine to carry. I felt her life slip away as she looked at me, her breath shallow, her body growing still. In that moment, I wasn’t just a fighter. I was a failure. The faces of my people, of my friends, blur with guilt and loss.
Everyone stares at me now with a mix of fear and pity, their eyes heavy with the weight of unspoken words. As if a single sound, a single breath, could shatter me into pieces. And maybe it will. Because every moment since that decision, every dream, every waking second, feels like a countdown to something inevitable. I will not break before the world does, because my kingdom, my people, and my family depend on it.
