Kieran's POV
I didn't sleep throughout the night.
Not even for a heartbeat.
The night passed without meaning as I moved through it like a shadow that refused to rest, walking when my strength demanded restraint, superspeeding when the urgency clawed too hard at my bones. The world blurred and sharpened in turns, trees bending into streaks of black and silver, the ground trembling beneath my feet whenever I let myself move the way I was born to.
I held the map clenched in my fist the entire time.
Liandrin's map.
It burned against my palm like it knew what it represented, Conan Valerius Hunter. My uncle. The architect of the Crimson Hunt. The rot at the center of everything that had touched Lorraine with pain.
I followed the glowing mark without hesitation.
This ends, I told myself again and again.
This ends with him.
For Lorraine.
For Felix.
For everyone I had failed.
