Elara did not move.
Bren stepped back, uncertainty flickering across his face for the first time since arriving at the ritual ground.
"What did you do to her," I shouted, my hands gripping the invisible boundary of the circle, unable to cross it without forfeiting everything.
"Nothing," Bren said, though his voice carried less confidence than before. "This is not my doing."
The crimson light pulsing from the stones climbed higher, wrapping around Elara's still form like smoke given weight. Her eyes, when they finally focused again, no longer held their familiar pale gold. They burned instead with something deeper, older, a color closer to dried blood than any natural shade.
"Elara," I called out. "Can you hear me?"
She turned her head slowly toward my voice, and for one terrifying mo
