Kael POV

The sound came first.

Not steel. Not claws. Drums.

They rolled across the valley like thunder, shaking the stones beneath Iron Howl’s walls. The Hollowbone host had gathered, their banners rising like broken spines against the dawn. Fires burned in neat rows, smoke coiling upward until it blotted out the rising sun.

I stood atop the battlements, scar burning across my chest, every throb echoing the beat of those drums.

Ardyn stood beside me, one hand on her belly, the other ...