“Kael—”
His gaze lifts.
And for a heartbeat—he is there.
Barely, but there.Enough.
Enough for hope to take root. Maybe enough to damn them all.
And then—it’s gone. Quicker than it came.
“No!” she screams, the word tearing from her throat.
Teddy falters, his axe raised over his shoulder. His gaze flicks to her. The axe trembles in his hands for the first time since Elyssara has known him.
“I feel him,” she screams.
Teddy freezes, breaths rasping in and out of him.
“Promise me, El. He’s in there?” he begs.
“He’s there,” she whispers.
But before anyone can act, Kael’s eyes shift beyond them.
Locking onto a new target.
Elyssara doesn’t need to turn to know what he’s seen.The Starborn Army.
Their formation is fractured but still holding, regrouping at the edge of the devastation, preparing to push forward again. Preparing to fight. Preparing to lay their lives on the line for this kingdom. Forherkingdom.
Kael’s head tilts again, that same wrong, twitching movement, as if he’s just been given a new directive.
His shadows gather. Denser. Darker. More focused than before.
Elyssara’s stomach drops.
“No!”
He moves. The surge of power that leaves him this time is clearer. More intentional. Like part of him knows that he is unbeatable. Unmatched. A force stronger than anything here. So he unleashes it.
It tears across the battlefield in a wide, sweeping arc, shadows threaded with that same silvered decay, cutting through space with devastating precision.
They don’t stand a chance.
Elyssara watches it happen.
She cannot stop it.
Light surges from her hands, but she is too far, the distance between them too great, the force of him too fast, too powerful.
The shadows hit. Bodies seize. Collapse. Disappear. A line of Starborn—her people, her army—wiped from existence in the span of a breath.
The sound that tears from her throat is not human. It is grief. It is rage. It is the sound of something breaking beyond repair. It is the sound of guilt. Fault. Blame settling at her own feet for not being willing to give him up. For choosing him over…everything.
“No!” she screams, her magic flaring violently in response, lashing outward in a desperate attempt to reach what is already gone.
But there is nothing left to reach. Only absence. Only ruin.
