Thalia
The clearing was quiet again, but her world wasn’t.
Thalia stood alone beneath the twisted canopy of Black Hollow, her fingertips grazing the rough edge of the altar stone that had once held her mother’s blood. Around her, the air thrummed, not with noise, but with expectation. The Luna Flame had stirred once more beneath her skin, and it hadn’t stopped humming since.
She was changing. Not just into something stronger, but something seen.
She hated it.
She longed for the simplicity of salves and herbs, for Nova’s laughter beside the healing tent, for a future that had been small and safe. But the bond, the exile, the altar, none of it left space for that life anymore. And now that the Syndicate had named her heir, even the forest seemed to hold its breath when she moved.
She c
