The tension in Riven's chest hadn't eased since he had realized something was coming.
His eighteenth birthday. The first full moon of autumn. The night the veil between the world of the living and the abyss would be at its weakest.
Beware… the academy… find the relic… Abyss Born.
What had it meant?
Nyx had been quiet since he told her. Not out of disinterest, but something deeper—calculating, watchful.
Now, the night of the full moon had arrived.
Riven stood atop on of the Academy's towers, overlooking the vast courtyards below. The moon bathed the world in cold silver light, casting elongated shadows across the stone paths. Students moved below, oblivious to the tension in the air, the way the land itself seemed to hold its breath.
The wind was too still. The night too quiet.
Then—
A ripple of something passed through the air, so faint that even Riven barely noticed it. A shift, a breath, an unseen force pressing against the world.
A pulse from the abyss.
He stiffened.
