The Path of No Return

Liria's eyes snapped open.

Cold air curled around her skin, sharp and biting, but she felt no chill. A heavy weight pressed against her chest, something invisible yet suffocating. She knew what it was. Power.

Not hers.

Hers now.

The echoes of Azael's voice still lingered in her mind, sinking into the marrow of her bones.

"You will become everything you were meant to be."

Liria exhaled slowly, pushing herself up from the bed. She should have been exhausted—Azael had forced her into sleep, but it hadn't been restful. It had been a command, a demonstration of control. And she had obeyed without resistance.

Her fingers curled into fists against the sheets.

Her body thrummed with energy, dark and foreign, settling in her veins like molten iron. The Core of the Sovereign Flame had already changed her, but now, something deeper was shifting.

Azael had called it training.

Liria didn't like the sound of that.