The cliffs of Aeryndor were a graveyard for ships and fools.

Winds howled like wolves through the jagged rocks. Lightning cracked the sky every few minutes, setting the clouds on fire. Even standing upright was a battle.

Kael, Lira, and Ryn fought their way up the slick, rain-soaked paths, cloaks snapping like banners in the storm.

“She’s up there,” Ashen shouted over the roar of the wind. “But we have to hurry—the Frost King’s influence is stronger here!”

Kael squinted through the rain. Above them, perched on a narrow ledge like a queen surveying her crumbling kingdom, stood a figure cloaked in ragged robes. Her hair whipped wildly, strands alive with sparks of electricity.

The Air-born.

Her name, once, was Selene.

Kael felt it the moment she looked up—a crackle in her blood, a flash of half-forgotten memories. Laughter in the clouds. Battles fought back-to-back. A bond of storm and flame.

But Selene didn’t recognize her.

As they climbed, the air itself fought them. Winds knocked them sideways. Stones flew like bullets. The world turned into a battlefield of storms—and Selene was the center.

“She’s not just resisting,” Lira gasped, forming a shield of spinning water around them. “She’s attacking.”

Ashen cursed. “The Frost King didn’t just touch her mind. He twisted it.”

Above, Selene raised her arms—and the storm answered.

Bolts of lightning struck the ground around them, throwing up fountains of stone. A spear of pure electricity formed in her hands, aimed right at Kael’s heart.

“She’s lost in the grief,” Ryn rumbled, shielding Kael with a wall of stone. “She remembers only the end.”

Kael didn’t hesitate. She stepped from behind the shield, arms wide, letting the rain drench her to the bone.

“Selene!” she screamed. “You made me swear—to fight until the last star fell! I never broke that promise! You didn’t either!”

The spear wavered.

Selene’s eyes—storm-bright, grief-broken—narrowed.

Kael stepped closer, fire flickering to life around her fists. Not in anger. In memory. In hope.

“We fought the Frost King together. We lost together. But you are not his weapon! You are the storm that broke his armies! Remember who you are!”

The clouds above shifted. For a moment, the winds died.

Selene screamed—a sound like a thunderclap—and hurled the lightning spear at Kael.

Kael didn’t move.

The spear shattered harmlessly a foot from her chest, dissolving into rain.

Selene dropped to her knees, her body racked with sobs.

Lira and Ryn rushed forward, forming a protective circle. Kael knelt beside her, gripping Selene’s trembling hand.

“I’m here,” Kael whispered. “I never left.”

Selene’s cracked voice replied, “Neither did I.”

And for the first time in what felt like centuries, the storm wept with them.

Far Across the Frozen Wastes…

The Frost King watched the lightning fade from his mirror. His claw tapped a slow, rhythmic beat on his throne.

“So be it,” he whispered. “If they awaken the storm, I will unleash the abyss.”

Behind him, a massive shape stirred—a creature of frost and shadow, chained and waiting.

Its time was almost here.