Chapter 56 The Cost Of Light

• The halls of the stronghold smelled of scorched stone and blood. Healers moved like whispers between bodies laid on stretchers, murmuring incantations, binding wounds, coaxing breath back into broken chests. But the silence that fell when Elira walked in with Kael in her arms was deafening.
• His blood had soaked her tunic, staining her skin, her soul. Her jaw clenched as she laid him on the nearest cot, her hands trembling despite everything she'd just survived. The warmth of his body was fading too fast.
• “Don’t you dare,” she whispered to him. “Don’t you dare slip away now.”