The shrine was silent after the ritual, but silence was worse than screams. Kael hadn’t left my side, though his fire barely flickered now, his body drawn thin as a blade that had been struck too many times.

The ash-marks on my skin had cracked and faded in places, but they didn’t vanish. They pulsed faintly, reminding me that the goddess still waited. She hadn’t lost. She was only patient.

And inside me, the unborn stirred not idly now, not restlessly. With purpose.

Its movements came ...