Scarlett’s POV

I shouldn’t be awake.

My body is heavy, wrapped in that strange half-sleep where pain dulls but doesn’t leave, where my blood hums with power I still don’t fully understand. The room Kieran gave me smells like cedar and ash, warm and steady, meant to make me feel safe.

It doesn’t.

Because beneath the quiet, beneath the false peace, I feel it.

Tension.

It coils through the land like a held breath.

Something is wrong.

I push myself upright, ignoring the way my head ...