Chapter 30 – Death Has Many Faces

"Sometimes the greatest threat is not the enemy's blade… but your own future."

The night did not breathe.

It hung—still, suffocating, thick with something unspoken.

Kael woke with a gasp, his skin slick with sweat, his heart hammering so loud he thought the castle might hear it. His breath came in shallow bursts. His wolf clawed at the inside of his chest, snarling, pacing.

> He saw her.

Lyra.

Covered in blood.

Not wounded.

Not dying.

Standing over his body.

Her expression had been unreadable.

Her eyes—void of grief. Her hands—steady. Her posture—unshaken.

> And his own lifeless eyes stared back at her.

The dream hadn't felt like a dream.

It had felt like memory.

A vision.

A warning.

Kael sat on the edge of the bed, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to steady himself. The cold air licked across his back like the fingers of fate.