Chapter 28: Mira’s Trial in the Rift

Mira’s POV

The ruins shifted. Shadows lengthened. The sails she’d left behind began to hum, faint and ominous. She had crossed a threshold no one else dared, and I knew she had done it alone. That knowledge cut deeper than any blade.

I followed the line of scorched symbols deeper into the ruins. Each one pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat. Her heartbeat. My bond flickered with each step, a pulse and fade, pulse and fade, like a signal from a sinking ...