AYLA – POV
My skin stung where the edge of the dagger pressed, barely drawing a thread of silver-tinged blood. Time slowed. Moonlight wavered. The cathedral held its breath—every soul in that hall frozen between reverence and terror.
Kael's fingers trembled where he held my wrist, the only thing anchoring me to flesh and fear. Shadows danced across his face, pale with grief but fierce with devotion. The bond throbbed between us, pulsing like a living heartbeat beneath ruined stone.
I could hear the priests stirring behind me. Murmurs—fear or prayer, I couldn't tell. Cassia slid backward, her face white, recognition dawned too late, the weight of her gambit trapping her in ignorance.
I inhaled. The roar inside me—the First Luna and I meshed into a single pulse of purpose.
"Do it." Her voice, a whisper at the edge of echoes. "Only you can choose this blood—your sacrifice—or abandon what can never be undone."
