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"Careful now." Valkan's voice cracked as his body was lifted from the ground. "My followers will tear this realm apart if anything happens to me."

"You seem to think I care." The voice that cut through the chaos was familiar but wrong—darker, deadlier than I'd ever heard it.Aether emerged from the shadows, and my heart nearly stopped. His perfect lip was sliced through, and purple bruises bloomed across his bare chest, weaving in and out of his void burns. His shadows writhed beneath his skin like living things. The very air around him seemed to bend and twist.

His fingers curled and Valkan's right arm snapped backward with a wet crack. Not just broken—shattered, the bone splintering in so many places it bulged beneath his skin.

A scream threatened to tear through my throat.

The air whipped, whistling through the cracked windows as Aether took another step forward. Above, the crystal chandelier swayed violently, its shadows dancing erratically across the walls.

"The realm needs what I offer," Valkan gasped through the pain, blood dripping from his lips. "It's the only path for survival."

Aether's fingers twisted again, and Valkan's left arm shattered. The sound was different this time—slower, more deliberate, like ice breaking across a frozen lake. Each crack echoed through the chamber as bone splintered into smaller and smaller pieces.

"Stop this while you still can, you idiot! You have no idea what awaits—" Valkan's voice was guttural, choking on blood as he croaked. But Aether simply cocked his head to the side and studied the Damphyre. Suddenly, Valkan's right leg twisted until bone pierced through flesh. His scream turned into a gurgle as Aether held him suspended in the air.

"I hope you have decent maids." Aether's voice dropped dangerously low as his eyes fell on the red-stained chamber.

"You're all going to die for this—" Valkan's growl was cut off in another scream as his left leg began to splinter, each break more excruciating than the last. The sound of grinding bone roared through my ears.

The temperature in the room plummeted as Aether stepped closer. "The thing about bone," he said, his tone unnervingly calm, "is how many pieces it can break into. Shall we count them?"

Another flick of his fingers and Valkan's ribs began to crack—one by one, methodically, each snap echoing through the chamber. The chandelier above shattered, crystal raining down around us but somehow avoiding my bed entirely.

"Is she worth another war?" Valkan's voice was just a hiss now, grunts of pain tearing through his words.

Aether simply lowered his chin as his fingers curled. Valkan's body snapped backward at an impossible angle, a piercing scream shattering through the room.

Valkan whipped his head to the left, blood trickling from his nose. His milky eyes found mine one last time. "You ungrateful cu?—"

The rest of his words disappeared in a violent explosion that sprayed across the entire chamber. The pressure released so suddenly my ears popped again, and I could hear my own ragged breathing in the sudden silence.

I watched Valkan's shredded remains slide down the ornate walls, leaving crimson streaks across gilded paper.

Footsteps approached the bed.

My heart seized as Aether's form neared me, blood drenching his flesh, dripping from his hair and down that structured face in rivulets until it met his marked chest. His golden eyes burned into a liquid bronze as his stare raked over me. I could nearly feel every open wound pulsing as his eyes fell upon them. As his face twisted in disgust.

I tried to shrink away as he reached for me, but my body still wouldn't respond. A whimper escaped my throat as I was finally able to dig my fingers into the linens. His hands froze mid-air, and something flickered across his face.

This wasn't the controlled soldier I knew. This was something else entirely—something that had just turned a dozen bodies inside out with a mere flick of his wrist. Not with shadows, but by pure will.

"Fia." His voice was softer now, though it trembled. He moved slower, each motion careful as he reached for me again. "I won't hurt you."

His arms slid beneath me. Even through my muted senses, I could have sworn energy thrummed through him, like a brewing storm was lifting me—carrying me through the thunder. He pulled me against his chest, and I caught the scent of rain beneath the metallic tang of blood.

"I'm taking you away from here."

The world dissolved into darkness as consciousness finally, mercifully slipped away.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Light playedout from beyond my eyelids. It was the first thing I registered. The second was the softness beneath me—unfamiliar but comfortable. Not my bed in the tower, nor the one in the Umbra lodging. My eyes shot open as panic clawed up my throat.

A piece of glass dangled from a string near me, causing patterns of muted rays to dance across rough-hewn logs, illuminating a small room with exposed wooden beams overhead. A stone fireplace was built into one wall, its hearth still warm with dying embers. My eyes traced the space, falling on a small table beside the bed.

It held various ointments and bandages, their herbal scent mixing with soap and woodsmoke. Everything about the space felt lived-in but sparse—a hunter's refuge perhaps.

Through a single window, I could see branches swaying in a gentle breeze, their leaves that strange, muted color that seemed to define everything in this realm. The isolation of the place struck me—no other buildings in sight, just dead wilderness stretching toward the gray horizon.