Chapter 215

** Paige’s POV ** The field goes silent, like the world itself is holding its breath. I stare at my hands. They’re glowing. It’s not the sharp, radiant gold I’m used to. This is softer, deeper somehow. It pulses slowly, steadily, like a heartbeat that isn’t mine alone. “Ronnie,” Ryder says carefully. “Explain. Now.” I don’t look up. I’m afraid that if I do, something else will happen. “I felt it before you shouted,” I whisper. “It was like the ground answered me.” Because it did. I can still feel it… roots and stone and soil humming beneath my feet, alive in a way I’ve never sensed before. I feel billions of lives beneath my feet, from moles to worms, even sparks of life so tiny that our eyes can’t see them. I feel their energy, and they feel mine; we fuel each other. Nurturing, anchoring and claiming. Ronnie skids to a stop a few feet away, his eyes shining with something dangerously close to devotion. “The Dawn,” he says slowly, “was never meant to be just destruction or cleansing. T