51. The Last Dying Breath of Hope

Reyna

It was the sound of three sets of footsteps crunching over the burnt earth that I heard before I could even see them. My body was screaming for me to end this dark and torturous puppetry by running towards them, but I stood there, frozen in fear.

The will of Pyrra’s malevolent energy, like a wisp of nightshade, silences my desperate cries.

It intoxicates me, fills me with a seething fury that was not my own. Pyrra whispers in the far recesses of my mind, “Stay still, Reyna. Let them come to you.”

So, I waited, every muscle quivering like a taut bowstring.

I saw Rune first, rushing into the clearing, his eyes widening as they met my gaze. Cassian and Malachi followed, their jaws clenched, tension radiating off them.

They hesitated, only for a moment, as if weighing their choices. But I could see it in their eyes—their insatiable need to save me.

Rune stepped into the flaming circle that surrounded me. The agony in his eyes almost broke me, almost tore Pyrra’s tendrils from my