Chapter 84

Maren

The first thing I feel is heat.

It’s not the gentle kind that wraps around you like sunlight. This is deeper, older—heat that hums through the air, through the stone, through me. It smells like smoke and iron, like the moment right before lightning hits.

My eyes snap open.

The ceiling above me is carved stone, dark and veined with red light. Cracks pulse with molten glow, running like veins