ASTER'S POV
I stood once again at the altar in the ruined temple, the same place where I had stolen the power of the six witches. Before me, another woman lay, pale and trembling, her life tethered to the thin thread I was about to sever. Thaddeus had snatched her from the streets—another vessel, another failure waiting to happen. But I had to try. Time was slipping away, and so was the strength of this body.
I gripped the knife, its cold blade catching the faint light that filtered through the cracks of the temple walls. Without hesitation, I drove it into her abdomen. She gasped, her body arching as blood poured from the wound, a crimson offering to the earth beneath us. The air thickened with the scent of iron and fear as her life ebbed away.
This was the moment—the fleeting window b
