Valerius found one anyway. He always did. The next pull wasn’t at Cassian’s chest. It was to a place—a hair left of the triangle’s point where the earth was dry under dew. The pressure there increased like a thumb pressing a bruise. The smallest boy—Elena’s child—gasped as the weight settled on his small ankle. His hum wavered.
Elena took one step until her toes brushed the glow. “Listen to me, sweetheart,” she said, voice even, not letting fear through the door. “Put your heel down. All the way. Yes. Good. Breathe like we practiced. Four beats in. Hold. Four out. I’m right here.”
He did it. The weight redistributed. The chant cut smooth again.
Ravyn’s throat burned. She wanted to promise a thousand things that didn’t belong in a battlefield and forced herself to say only what would hel
