They dragged me back toward the lower corridors again, my arms bound but my spine unbent.
The sting on my cheek had cooled into a dull throb. My body felt hollow from hunger and strain, yet my mind burned with sharp, furious clarity. Selene had miscalculated. Torin had seen it. Clay had allowed it.
And then fate, or something darker, decided that humiliation was not enough.
The doors to the council chamber had not fully closed when hurried footsteps echoed from the upper hall.
Small footsteps.
Light. Familiar.
My heart seized.
“Father!”
Zach’s voice rang through the corridor before I saw him.
He burst into the chamber, breathless, cheeks flushed, eyes wide with urgency. A guard shouted behind him, but too late.
Time fractured.
Clay turned sharply at the sound of his name.
Selen
