LUCIAN’S POV
I learned, a long time ago, that battles rarely announce their true turning point.
It didn't arrive with sound or spectacle.
It arrived in silence. In the slight hesitation of a blade mid-swing.
In the moment the sky decided to stop behaving like a sky and became something else entirely.
That was when I first noticed it.
The eclipse was no longer creeping.
It surged forward, darkness devouring the sun.
From the ridge above the entrance, light fractured over the island. Shadows stretched in unnatural geometry across the terrain, folding over stone and tree against the logic of the world.
I fought while keeping my attention on it, parrying and striking automatically, barely paying mind to the opponents who pressed in from all sides.
Not because they were unimportant, but because they had become predictable.
Maxwell’s strikes followed discipline.
Maris and Brett had Damian distracted on the far side of the island.
