Chapter 172

*Rowan*

I carried her.

Elora’s arms were limp around my shoulders, her breath ragged and shallow against my neck. The echo of Varis’s last words rang in my mind like a wound that refused to heal. She’d fallen as I lifted her from the ashes of the shattered courtyard, debris crackling beneath our feet—stone and flame recessed, leaving only grief. I stayed silent, a mute offering of strength, feelin