Chapter 123 The Tear

The darkness had settled over the encampment like a shawl of silence. The fire had dwindled to embers that barely illuminated the periphery of their circle, but the urgency of the hour hung in the air. The wolves, as always vigilant, lay in tense stillness. Seraphine stood there, her shadowy form rimmed by the soft light of the dying flame, her gaze far away, her mind ruminating back and forth upon the past and the peril awaiting them. Ash remained by her side, his own mind a churning maelstrom. He'd never been part of anything this big, anything so perilous. But deep inside, he knew the truth had settled in: this was about the Nightwardens, no, about Seraphine too. But more than all that, it was about the Tear, the long-gone dividing line between worlds, and what awaited beyond.