Unfinished business

 (Chapter 53:authors Pov) 

 The ruins stood eerily silent.

 Mira's pulse hammered in her ears as the last traces of the guardian faded into nothingness. Its final words clung to her skin like frost—You were never meant to return.

 The words burrowed into her mind, pressing against something just out of reach. A memory that wasn't hers, yet felt like it should be.

Lorenzo's voice cut through the haze. "We need to move."

 His tone was sharper than usual, a tension in his posture that hadn't been there before. She knew why. The ruins had turned against them. The city had awakened.

 Vincenzo emerged from the collapsing temple, blood streaked across his cheek but his usual smirk in place. "That was fun," he mused, twirling one of his daggers. "Though, next time, maybe let me know when the abyss is going to spit out something that actually remembers you, Mira."

Mira barely heard him.