The world didn't end with a whimper; it ended with the sound of grinding stone and the hiss of "Silent-Sleep" gas.
As the ceiling of the subterranean holding cells buckled under Seraphina’s detonated charges, a thick, suffocating cloud of dust and crimson vapor filled the air. Hunter was a silhouette of desperate, raw power, his body braced against the iron bars as he tried to shield the cell from the falling obsidian. But the gas was a neurotoxin designed for Alphas—it turned his blood to lead and his vision to a blurred, gray smear.
"Leo! Mia!" Willow’s voice was a ragged scream.
She lunged through the settling dust, her hands finding Toby’s small, limp body. The triplets were unconscious, their breathing shallow and rhythmic under the influence of the chemical sleep.
Through the
