The carriage did not stop for comfort.
It stopped because the world beyond it ended.
Elira Veyl sat with her hands folded in her lap, wrists bound by ceremonial silk instead of chains, an insult dressed as mercy.
Across from her, Captain Serin Vale watched silently.
"You still don't have to do this" Serin said finally.
Elira didn't look up.
"I already did,"
Outside the window, the last green lands of her kingdom faded into ash-black soil. The closer they got to the border, the more the world seemed to forget how to live.
She had been chosen carefully.
Not as a warrior. Not as a prisioner.
As a sacrifice.
Her father said it was for peace.
Her mother said it was honour.
Elira knew better.
It was disposal.
The carriage jolted.
Serin reached for her sword. "We're here."
Elira finally lifted her gaze.
Ahead stood the Ruined Gates.
Massive black stone carved with symbols that pulsed faintly red, like something beaneath them was still breathing.
The kingdom beyond was not a kingdom at all.
It was a wound in the world.
And standing at its edge-waiting-were soldiers who did not wear hope on their armour.
One of them stepped forward.
General Rykor Thane.
"If she runs," he said flatly "she dies before she takes three steps."
Serin's grip tightened.
Elira stepped out of the carriage anyway.
Wind hit her like a warning.
And beyond the gates-
She saw him.
The Ruined King.
Kael Dravenhart.