The world snapped back in pieces.
Gravel under my palms. The stink of burned wards and hot metal. Someone shouting orders in a voice that barely registered as Grace’s. Sirens wailing in the distance—human emergency or palace backup, hard to tell.
None of it mattered.
Mama.
The word wasn’t sound. It was a trembling thought, thin as spider silk, brushing the raw place in my chest that had been a bond and then a scar and now—
Now it was a lifeline.
“Lia!” El grabbed my shoulders, shaking hard enough to rattle my teeth. “Breathe. Look at me.”
I dragged air into my lungs. It tasted wrong. Too empty.
“He’s gone,” I said. The words tasted like rust. “They took him.”
“No.” Her fingers dug in. “No, you heard him. That means they didn’t finish. Whatever that was—portal, jump, spell—they did
