The calm was brief.
Aerin felt it first—not through sight, but through the pulse of the ocean itself. The Wardens stirred uneasily, tails lashing, bodies coiling, as if something had entered the water that didn't belong. It wasn't the alien entity above. It wasn't the remnants of chaos from the battle. It was… someone else.
From the depths beyond the palace, currents shifted unnaturally. They carried a scent she had known long before she had learned the tides, long before the Wardens had recognized her. Familiar. Human. Dangerous.
Aerin's pulse flared, a warning.
"No," she whispered, clutching her abdomen instinctively, feeling the child thrumming inside her like a drumbeat of impending doom. The bond with the Wardens tightened reflexively, a living shield of anticipation and power.
Caelum's eyes snapped open. "It's not the sea," he said, his tone sharp, calculating. "It's them."
