Chapter 180

* Elora*

The path to the Hallowed-Grotto wasn’t marked on any map.

It lay behind a crumbling arch beyond the Academy’s outer walls, hidden beneath an overhang of ancient stone and twisting vines, where the roots of trees tangled with the bones of the earth. Kael didn’t speak as we walked. He just held my hand, steady and warm, guiding me through ash-dusted undergrowth and narrow tunnels that pulse