Chapter 128
Kross
The world was ash and silence around me, Rufina’s curse still echoing in my skull like poisoned scripture. But when I looked down at Vanya—her body fragile against mine, her breath faint but there—I forced the darkness aside.
With a snap of my fingers, the strange new power answered me. Scarlet energy coiled from my hands, bending itself into form. A cloak—deep velvet, soft and warm—wrapped itself around her broken body, shielding her from the cold. Another ripple clothed me, hiding the blood, the ruin, the beast that still lurked under my skin.
I rose, tightening my hold on her. She was weightless in my arms, but the burden of what I nearly lost was heavier than any battlefield.
A portal split the air before me, a dark, searing oval edged with runes I did not know y
