22 bab Bersambung Every year, Lyra's village gathers beneath the ancient statues of the Fates, offering prayers and sacrifices to keep the creeping darkness at bay. The Ruined Kingdom stands in the distance, a forbidden place where no one enters and no one leaves. A place ruled by a king who does not age, does not die, and does not care for the world beyond his walls.
Lyra has never believed in fate, only in survival.
With her mother's health failing, she is willing to do whatever it takes to save what little she has left. But when this year's ritual goes terribly wrong, Lyra is taken-ripped from the life she knows and thrust into the heart of a kingdom lost to time.
There, she is told she has been chosen. That she, along with others, must vie for the favor of a king no one has seen in over a century. But something is wrong within the castle's walls. Whispers of the past haunt her steps, and the King-cold, untouchable, and shrouded in secrets-watches her too closely.
As shadows stir and forgotten magic awakens, Lyra begins to question everything she's been told about the Ruined Kingdom. And, more importantly, about herself.
Because the deeper she delves into the mystery of the King and the kingdom he rules behind the walls, the more she realizes:
Some destinies are written in blood.
And some fates are meant to be broken.
