Chapter 158

• Zara – First Person POV
• The academy didn’t feel like the same place I’d left behind.
• Stone walls that had once gleamed with polished banners and the proud history of warriors were now blackened at the edges, cracked from the heat of dragon fire that still haunted the marble floors. The chandelier that once glittered in the ballroom hung in pieces, its crystal remains swept into piles along the corners like shards of broken hope. Even the air was different—dusty, with an unease that couldn’t be scrubbed away no matter how much rebuilding the staff tried to do.