The icy stone of the East Wing floor offered no comfort as Kaelia Vance lay curled on her side, her breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps.

The Aether-burn was no longer a creeping, insidious decay. Without the Sun-Tear Amulet shielding her womb, the disease had erupted into a roaring inferno. Dee

The freezing isolation of the East Wing was almost a relief after the suffocating heat of the Spire.

Kaelia sat on the edge of her narrow, uncomfortable bed, a small leather satchel open beside her. Her movements were slow, entirely mechanical. Every time she reached for an object—a spare woolen d

The creeping dawn brought no warmth to the East Wing. It bled through the frost-rimmed windows, casting a sickly, pale light over the desolate stone corridors.

"You have to hold on just a little longer," Kaelia whispered, resting a pale, trembling hand over the swell of her stomach. Beneath her pa