I pressed my hand to the orb’s surface. It was cool again.
Innocent. Like it hadn’t just shown me the exact moment everything nearly fell apart.
But now I knew the truth.
The first attempt had failed.
And someone—somethingwas still trying.
Still pushing.
Still bending that circle, one careful inch at a time, until itsnaps.
The dread crawled up my spine like ivy, slow and choking, because the second attempt?
The second time never played out the same.
The second time would be smarter.
Sharper.
Worse.
Whoever wanted to break the circle wasn’t done.
And they wouldn’t stop until it shattered completely.
Not bent.
Broken.
And the part that turned my stomach to ice?
I wasn’t sure if I’d been chosen to stop it…
Orreplacethe one who’d failed before.
And I wasn’t sure which of those terrified me more.
Because I knew who was at the center of it all.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The orb sat between us.
As though it hadn’t just dragged me halfway into a memory that didn’t belong to me and yet somehow did.
My fingers twitched where they curled around the corner of the blanket, and I realized I hadn’t let go of it since I sat down. The edges of my room were beginning to blur in that twilight way where magic and thought overlapped, where even the lamplight flickered a little too long before settling.
My dad had moved to the hearth, curling in a slow circle on the thick rug, though he kept one eye open. He didn’t snore. He didn’t grumble.
That alone told me he felt it too.
Twobble sat on the arm of the chair across from me, his feet swinging a few inches from the floor. He wasn’t fidgeting. And for Twobble, that wasdeeplyconcerning.
“So…” he said at last, voice low. “Do you want to say what we’re all thinking, or should I?”
I looked up, eyes burning. “Say it.”
