Ivy pov

The Circle was gone. It was not fading. Not watching from a distance. But it was totally gone. I stood in the center of Bloodmoon and waited for the familiar pressure to return. It didn’t. My Luna mark stayed quiet against my skin. For the first time in longer than I could remember, I wasn’t bracing myself for the next disaster.

Lucien broke the silence first. “It feels… different.”

“Yes,” I said. “But not fragile.”

He nodded slowly. “Settled.”

Rick tugged on my ...