Ethan's hands tightened around the phone hard enough that Lily heard the case crack, a sharp, brittle sound that seemed to echo the sudden shift in the air around them. "Marcus," he said, voice low and dangerous, all traces of the earlier tension with Vivian evaporating instantly beneath something far more serious. "They have Marcus."
"Who's 'they'?" Lily asked, though dread already told her the answer wouldn't be simple, wouldn't be anything as straightforward as the threats they'd already learned to navigate over the past exhausting week. "I thought Vane's forces withdrew. I thought this was finally over."
"So did I," Ethan said grimly, already dialing Grayson with hands that weren't quite steady, betraying an unease Lily rarely saw from him even in the worst of their previous crises.
