(Kael's POV)
The first night the moon turned red, I thought it was an omen.
By the second, I knew it was a warning.
Now, on the seventh night, as its scarlet light bleeds over the Obsidian Wastes, I understand the truth I've been running from.
Selene is dying.
And the gods are coming for her.
The desert wind cuts at my cloak, dragging grains of black sand across my face like shards of glass. The air here hums, alive, wrong, ancient. Even the shadows look different, stretching too far, bending in directions that defy nature. We should never have come here, not with her in this state.
But the kingdom is hunting us, the council has declared us traitors, and the world itself is collapsing under Lucien's corruption.
Selene stands a few steps ahead of me, her back to the wind, her hair whipping like silver fire in the moonlight. She's breathing hard, like each inhale is a battle. Red veins pulse beneath her skin, faint, but worsening each day.
