Lorelei

The chamber was dark, but sleep wouldn't come.

I lay in the center of the massive bed, the sheets tangled around my legs, my eyes fixed on the ceiling I couldn't see. The silence pressed against my ears like water, thick and suffocating, and the dread in my chest was a living thing, coiled and waiting.

The New Dawn ceremony was tomorrow.

I had been preparing for weeks—fortifying the citadel, coordinating with the guards, ensuring that every detail was in place. The wards were ...