I should feel relief. Should feel triumph. Should feelsomethingother than this crawling dread that won’t stop building in my chest.
Because the God is turning again.
Slowly.
Toward Kaia.
Oh fuck.
Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck—
He’s not done.
He destroyed Alekir for corrupting the cycle. Destroyed Lady Virath for serving him. Destroyed the Nightwraiths for existing.
And now he’s looking at the Valkyrie who just ripped open the Gate he was sealed behind.
Everyone tenses. I feel it through the bonds — Torric’s fury, Aspen’s desperate calculation, Malrik’s shadow magic coiling like it’s ready to strike, Darian’s light blazing brighter, Kieran’s dragon form shifting to put himself between Kaia and—
The God stops.
Not threatening.
Not attacking.
Just… waiting.
Looking at her with those ancient, endless eyes.
And then—
I hear it.
Behind me.
A sound.
Soft. Wrong.Familiar.
Like whispers made of shadow. Like movement without motion. Like a thousand things breathing at once.
Every hair on my body stands up.
I turn.
Slowly.
Terrified of what I’m going to see.
And my heart stops.
They’re everywhere.
Shadows.
Just there.
Filling the plateau behind us. Spreading across the snow like spilled ink. Rising from the ground, from the rocks, from the very air itself.
