The Sanctuary had not known silence since Elena vanished.
The jungle itself seemed to wail. Alarms echoed through the trees in ragged calls, horns braying like the cries of dying animals. Smoke drifted between the canopies, veiling the stars. Fires burned along the perimeter walls, their light guttering and frantic, casting monstrous silhouettes that writhed across soaked earth and twisted roots. The air was wet with rain, but still the flames hissed and clung stubbornly to the wood.
Every able soul was pressed into the search. Warriors stumbled through mud and undergrowth with torches, their shadows twitching like prey being hunted. Esperanza's scream had split the night like a blade, rousing even the deepest sleepers:
Her mother was gone.
They found Jaime collapsed in the cottage. His shirt torn open, chest slick with blood that glistened like oil in the torchlight. Three deep gashes had raked his side. No blade could have cut so ragged, no beast left marks so deliberate. Aurora knelt beside him first, her hands steady with the training of a soldier, though her heart beat like a trapped bird.
"Hold him- hold him still- " she commanded, her voice a taut string. Señora Behike pressed her weight against his thrashing limbs as Aurora bound and pressed, worked and prayed. The bleeding slowed, but Jaime never stirred.
And that silence of him not waking was worse than the alarms.
For if Jaime lay unconscious, if the bond between him and Elena was severed into dream and darkness, it could only mean she had been dragged somewhere deeper still. Soul tethered. Body stolen.
The night stretched endlessly. Alejandro and Juan hurled themselves into the burning jungle with the others, torches in one hand, steel in the other. They scoured the ruins, the hollowed stones, the half-swallowed caves. Smoke curled low through the roots, carrying the stench of iron, of poison, of poppy-sap that made the eyes sting and the skin crawl.
Nothing.
Not a trace.
Only the jungle shifting, restless, as though watching.
When Jaime woke, deep into the next day, it was with a sound that tore the hut in two.
A violent gasp, then a scream. His body lurched upright, blue eyes wide and bloodshot, clawing at the air, at the cot, as though he could drag her back out of nothingness.
"Elena- no-!"
Aurora rushed forward, Behike close behind, but his body collapsed under its own weight, shuddering violently. Sweat poured off him in sheets, soaking the linens, blood and dust streaking his trembling frame. The poison still clung to him like cobwebs in his veins.
Esperanza broke. She threw herself against his arm, sobbing so hard her ribs ached, her voice rasping raw until it dissolved into silence.
But Phineus did not cry.
The boy sat cross-legged in the corner, small fists pressed so hard into his knees that his nails carved crescents into his skin. His eyes were shut tight, jaw locked, his breath slowing- measured, deliberate, reaching for something no one else could see.
And then he saw it.
A vision struck him like a blow: ruins, blackened and skeletal, by the coast where the tide bled into stone. An altar, slick with seawater and ash. His mother's body stretched across the slab like an offering, aura dimmed to a dull ember, her breath shallow and poisoned.
For an instant, violet light flickered in his eyes. The storm that lived in hers had passed, for a heartbeat, into him.
"I know where she is," he whispered, the words breaking like dry twigs. "The ruins. By the coast. She's… she's there."
The room froze.
Jaime staggered, gripping the cot frame, blood pounding at his temples. "Take me-" he rasped.
Alejandro seized his shoulders, iron in his voice. "Not this time, hermano. You can barely breathe. Let us do this."
Jaime's mouth twisted, fury and grief boiling behind his teeth. He wanted to howl, to tear through the walls and crawl into the jungle on his hands if he had to- but his legs shook beneath him, and his voice broke when he choked out, "She's… scared."
The word spread through the room like rot.
Silence settled, thick and suffocating.
Then Jaime's wild eyes fixed on Alejandro, then Esperanza , desperate. "Go. Now."
There was no time left to argue.
Alejandro strapped on his armor with shaking hands. Juan's jaw clenched as his gold-lit gaze flickered to Esperanza, violet fire burning in hers, the two of them pulled by magic and terror in equal measure. Together they raced for the Sanctuary gates, torches spitting sparks, their hearts beating with the rhythm of a funeral drum.
But before Esperanza crossed the threshold, Phineus threw himself against her. His small arms locked around her waist, his face buried in her chest. His whole frame shook.
"Espie…" His voice cracked, breaking her heart clean in two. "Find mama. Please. She doesn't have much time…"
When he pulled back, his eyes were wet, glowing faintly violet, unnatural for a boy so young.
And his final words struck like thunder:
"The lion has her."