The silence after the trap was almost worse than the chaos before it. They didn’t speak for a long time. Even Alira, normally the first to break tension with a grim remark or a biting truth, said nothing as they stood in the scorched catacombs. The ashes of the mirror woman still smoldered at Vivian’s feet, glittering faintly like stardust that had fallen too far. Emerson crouched beside her, watching her chest rise and fall with shallow, deliberate breaths. He didn’t touch her. Not yet. Not until she opened her eyes and said, “She’s not gone.” “We know,” he murmured. “But you burned her,” Alira said, stepping forward. “You hurt her.” “Yes,” Vivian said, forcing herself upright. “But that was just a fragment. A copy sent ahead to test how far she could push me before I pushed back. She’ll
