The scream shattered the quiet like glass.
I bolted upright, heart pounding.
Jace was already moving, claws half-shifted, eyes glowing. Auren stood in the doorway, sword drawn—not just steel, but silver-edged. His expression was grim.
“It’s not an animal,” he said.
“Where is it coming from?” I whispered, trying not to wake Rowan—though it was too late. He stirred against the blanket, eyes flickering gold.
“I don’t know,” Auren admitted. “But it knew your name.”
My name.
That whisper—it hadn’t come from any physical direction. Like a ghostly hand pulling strands no one should ever touch, it had twisted through the bond.
With scrolls held to her chest and her robes partially thrown over her shoulders, Kairis emerged at the end of the hall.
“I heard it too,” she said. “It was an Echo
