The collapse was endless.
Light devoured sound; stone became wind. For a heartbeat that stretched beyond time, Eli felt her body dissolve into weightless dust, every particle screaming with memory.
When the world returned, it did so in fragments—shards of ice spinning through the air, the taste of blood sharp in the back of her throat, and the echo of wings, thousands of them, like storms grinding against each other.
She coughed, dragging herself up from the rubble. The air was thick with frost and burning light. Claire was already on her feet, violet flame flaring around her arm to keep the debris at bay.
Lara crouched beside her, a small figure beneath the fractured sky, staring up through the ruin where heaven's light poured down like molten glass.
And Merlin—Merlin stood at the edge of the chasm that had once been the tower wall, staff planted deep into the ice. His robes fluttered in the gale, his eyes wide not with fear, but awe. The chained one was still there.
