The chamber of the Trial was nothing like the sacred sanctuaries Aria had visited before. It wasn't bathed in divine light or guarded by celestial sentries. No glowing trees. No ancestral spirits. Just a single stone circle at the heart of a vast cavern, open to the sky, with jagged cliffs forming a broken crown around them. Flames flickered from the cracks in the earth, giving the entire place a pulsing, angry glow.
"This is where the Flame decides," Selene said, her voice reverent but grim. "Not where we plead."
Aria's throat tightened.
The triplets stood around her—Dorian with his arms crossed and jaw tense, Marcus silent but watchful, and Tobias pacing like a caged beast.
They all felt it too.
