The only sound was Sienna's unsteady breathing, each inhale sharp, each exhale slowly, as if she were testing her own existence.
The golden glow that had once wrapped around her had long since faded, but something else had taken its place, something colder, heavier.
It curled around her fingertips like smoke, dark and restless, slithering up her arms in slow, deliberate waves. She watched it, mesmerized, the way the shadows clung to her skin as if she had always belonged to them.
And maybe she had.
The thought sent a shiver down her spine, but she didn't fight it. Not this time.
For the first time in her life, she wasn't afraid of the darkness.
She was afraid of losing it.
Kael and Darius stood a few feet away, watching her with expressions that made her chest tighten. Kael's blue eyes, always so steady, flickered with something close to panic, while Darius' jaw was locked in barely contained frustration.
They saw it.
They saw her.
And they didn't like what they saw.
