"Contained how," I shouted over the growing hum vibrating through the ground beneath us.
"I do not know," Bren admitted, backing further away from the widening crack. "The original ritual required more than one bloodline working together. I never intended to open it alone."
"Then help us close it," I said.
"I cannot," he said. "Whatever is happening now, it is happening because of her blood, not mine. I have no power to stop what I did not start."
Elara remained on her knees, breathing hard, both hands pressed against the earth now instead of her temples, as though trying to physically hold something back through sheer will alone.
"Elara," I said, crouching beside her again. "Tell me what to do."
"I do not know," she gasped. "It does not speak in words. Only feeling. Pressure. Like s
