The world bent around her.
Not metaphorically.
Reality actually folded.
The courtyard, the palace, the broken sky above Valeris, all of it seemed to draw inward toward a single point.
Her.
Aria took one step forward.
And the ground remembered her.
Cracks spiderwebbed across the marble, not from force, but from recognition. Silver light pooled beneath her bare feet, spreading outward like liquid moonlight, swallowing shadow wherever it touched.
She didn't feel pain anymore.
Didn't feel fear.
Didn't feel the Crown burning inside her veins.
She felt vast.
Like her body had become too small for what she carried.
Somewhere behind her, she heard her own heartbeat.
It sounded very far away.
The creature stared at her.
For the first time since it had descended through the Veil, its expression wasn't hunger.
It was certainty.
And something else.
Something ancient.
"Ah," it whispered.
