Chapter 17 Tides Of Loyalty

• The throne room echoed with distant fires and fading screams.
• Elara stood amid the ruins, sweat clinging to her brow, her tunic soaked with blood that wasn’t entirely her own. Her legs trembled, but she refused to fall. The power she’d unleashed—true Emberflame—still crackled faintly in her veins, a reminder of what she had become. Of what she could become again.
• Kael moved behind her, his steps slow and deliberate, blood staining his arm from a shallow gash. His golden eyes never left hers.