The summons came as pain.
Maelis was halfway through the forest when the bond wrenched, not toward Ember—but inward, collapsing violently in on itself. Her breath tore free as she dropped to one knee, fingers digging into damp earth as heat ripped through her veins like molten wire.
“No—” she gasped.
The world folded.
She hit stone hard enough to jar her teeth.
Cold pressed against her palms. Obsidian. The chamber between smelled of old magic and blood, the air thick with watching silence. Shadows clung to the walls like living things, coiling and recoiling as if in anticipation.
“You embarrassed us.”
The voice came from everywhere at once.
Maelis struggled upright, pain screaming through her muscles as the bond pulsed erratically—tight, wrong, unstable.
“I prevented exposure,” sh
