The descent into the darker basin felt like walking into a held breath that had lasted centuries. The air grew still and metallic. Sound arrived late or not at all. When Kael deliberately kicked a stone, the click happened three heartbeats after his boot connected, as if the place were still deciding whether the event deserved to exist.
Coren walked near the front, gray eyes fixed on the black-glass ruin. “The seal was layered. Outer removal of the land, middle deletion of records, inner binding of the wound itself. You have already broken the first two by limiting the prison. The third is still active. It will not welcome visitors.”
Ysara kept one scarred hand on Cal’s shoulder, the other on Sela’s. “Stay between adults. If the air tries to forget you, shout your name until it remembers
