I stop. Because I can’t say it. Can’t put words to the realization that’s been building in my chest for weeks now, getting stronger every time she looked at me like I’m more than what I’ve become.
When did she become everything?
When did losing her start feeling like losing myself?
“Inside.” Stellan’s hand closes around my arm, not rough but implacable. “Unless you want three hundred panicked Feeders to witness you fall apart.”
He’s right. I know he’s right. But moving away from this spot feels like abandoning her all over again.
Stellan’s grip tightens. “She’s not here, Wes. But she’s not gone forever.” He pauses, something flickering across his expression—reluctance, maybe vulnerability. “I can still… sense her. Faint, but there. Whatever the Ether did, it didn’t sever the connection.”
The possibility that she’s still out there, still connected, is the only thing that gets my feet moving.
The sanctuary feels too quiet as we file inside, like the building itself is holding its breath. Stellan guides us to a smaller chamber off the main hall—something that feels private, sacred, away from the chaos outside.
The door closes behind us with a soft click, and suddenly the weight of what just happened crashes down.
She’s gone. Bree is gone, and it’s because Thane kept secrets. Because we all kept secrets. Because I was so focused on hiding what I was becoming that I never told her about Phil, never prepared her for what might be coming.
My hands start shaking.
“I can’t—” The words choke off in my throat. “I can’t do this without her.”
The admission hangs in the air like a confession. Because it’s true. She’s always been the center of everything—since we were kids, since before I understood what that meant. But these past few weeks, I finally stopped pretending otherwise. The thing that makes the hunger bearable, that makes the changes in me feel like growth instead of corruption.
Without her, I’m just—
Empty.
“Hey.” Theo appears in front of me, calm and steady in that way of his that usually grounds me. “She’s not dead, Wes. She’s somewhere else.”
“How do you know?”
“Because—” He gets that faraway look he gets when he’s seeing something the rest of us can’t. “I can still feel the echo of her. Faint, but real. She’s not gone—she’s just… somewhere else.”
I stare at the thread, so faint I can barely make it out. But he’s right. It’s there.
“She’s alive,” Theo says quietly. “Wherever the Ether took her, she’s alive.”
The relief that floods through me is so intense it actually hurts. My knees do give out this time, and I sink into one of the chairs like all my strings have been cut.
Gray moves to the window, shoulders tense as he stares out at the crowd still milling around in confusion. “We need to figure out what happened. What triggered the Ether surge.”
“Betrayal,” Thane says quietly. It’s the first word he’s spoken since we came inside, and his voice sounds like broken glass. “She felt betrayed.”
Jace whirls on him. “No shit. You think maybe that’s because youbetrayedher?”
“I was trying to protect—”
“Protect?” Jace’s voice cracks with fury. “You knew Phil was coming for her and you said nothing. You let her walk into that crowd blind while her stalker circled like a fucking vulture.”
“Enough.” Stellan’s voice cuts through the argument like a blade. “Fighting won’t bring her back.”
He moves closer, pacing near the window with focused intensity that makes my skin crawl. Like her disappearance is just another puzzle to solve.
“My guess?” he says, voice careful and measured. “The Ether responded to extreme emotional trauma. It didn’t just hide her—I think it pulled her somewhere else entirely.”
“Where?” Gray’s question comes out rough, desperate.
