Chapter 41 Echoes Beneath The Stone

The morning fog rolled thick over the fortress, clinging to the stone walls like a second skin. Aria stood on the eastern battlements, the chilled air whispering secrets through her hair. She should have been resting—especially now, especially with the faint but undeniable pulse beneath her skin that signaled the earliest stirrings of life. But rest eluded her. The veil was thinning, and she could feel it everywhere: in the tremor of the earth, in the hum of the moonstone pendant at her throat, in the way shadows now stretched toward her instead of away.