The storm closed in.Not vast anymore, not endless—it was a noose. Light and shadow wound tighter, binding the brothers in a crucible of silence. Every crack in the citadel groaned as if the world itself strained to hear the outcome.Jason’s knife burned white, fire crawling up his arm into his chest. His body shook under the weight of it, veins glowing like molten glass. The relic was done whispering, done showing visions. It had reduced the world to one truth: a cost must be paid.Damian’s blade trembled, shards of shadow splintering from its jagged edge. He was bloodied, broken, but still standing—eyes wide, fixed not on Jason’s weapon, but on the storm itself. For the first time, fear cracked through his fury.“No,” Damian growled, shaking his head. “Not me. I carried the silence. I bore it when no one else could. I won’t be the sacrifice.” His voice cracked, raw. “I refuse.”Jason swayed, his knees nearly buckling. The relic clawed deeper, branding him with every heartbeat. He ta

The city did not welcome them home.It watched in silence. Towers that had once glowed with banners and firelight now stood as skeletal frames, their glass veined with cracks from the relic’s storm. Streets that had carried armies now carried only the shuffle of survivors, each step too heavy for triumph.The Severed Wing returned not as victors, but as remnants.Mara led the column through the shattered gates. Her face was streaked with dirt and blood, her shoulders hunched as though bearing more than her own weight. Behind her, Gav barked low orders—keep the wounded steady, clear the rubble ahead—but even his commands felt brittle, brittle in a way Jason’s never had.Eryn trailed near the rear, head bowed, fingers brushing the hilts of her daggers as if she needed the touch to remind herself she was still here. Her eyes darted to the shadows, not out of fear, but searching—for the fire that had always cut the dark for them. But Jason’s fire was gone.Every soldier knew it.Every cit

The first reports came at dawn.Villages along the southern ridge—gone. Not sacked, not plundered, but burned into black skeletons of stone. Witnesses spoke of fire that did not fade with water, fire that clung like oil to flesh and shadow alike. Some swore they saw a figure in the blaze. A man-shaped void, carrying Jason’s fire in its hollow chest.The Severed Wing gathered in the council hall, its cracked dome letting gray light bleed over them. The air was thick with smoke from the brazier, though none felt its warmth.Mara stood at the head of the table, her voice low but iron. “We need answers. Not rumors. Not fear. What is this shadow?”The room shifted. Gav’s fists pressed to the wood. “It’s a Raven trick. They found a way to mimic his fire. Poison the people with doubt.”But Eryn’s voice cracked through, sharp. “You didn’t see the scouts’ bodies. I did. Their flesh wasn’t cut. It was consumed. Nothing like the Ravens’ weapons. This isn’t a trick. It’s something else.”Silence

The square had become a battlefield of elements.Fire howled like a living beast, silence tore like a blade. The air itself could not decide whether to burn or collapse into nothingness. Soldiers on the walls shielded their faces, watching through fingers as the clash carved rifts in the night.Damian and the shadow circled each other, though neither made the choice. The void inside him drew toward the flame as if pulled by a tether, while the shadow’s blaze leaned toward him like a predator scenting blood.Mara’s hands gripped the battlement stone so tight her knuckles split. This was no duel of men. It was fracture against fracture. Brother against brother, if one could even call it that.The shadow moved first.It lunged without weapon, its arm of fire arcing down like a scythe. The ground where it struck cracked into molten channels, stone glowing red before collapsing into ash.Damian did not dodge. He let go.The silence roared outward, swallowing the flames, devouring their sou

The silence and fire tore the city apart.Cobblestones ruptured, entire walls collapsed, and the night sky pulsed like a wound as void and flame struggled for dominion. The people of the city cowered in what shelters they could find, praying for dawn, though dawn itself seemed too fragile a promise to reach.Mara gripped the battlements, her knuckles white, eyes locked on the two figures in the square. Damian, staggering, bleeding, yet unbroken. The shadow, ablaze, tireless, its flames licking higher with every heartbeat.The Ravens still pressed the lines, though the blast had shredded their front ranks. Fanatic eyes glowed in the firelight, mouths chanting in unison, offering their bodies to fuel the inferno. Each one cut down seemed to stoke the blaze anew.This city, her city, could not survive much longer. And still, Damian fought on alone.***Eryn stumbled up beside her, face pale beneath soot and blood. “Commander, if this continues—”“I know,” Mara said sharply, though her th