Thane doesn’t flinch. His silver eyes stay steady, cold, infuriatingly calm. “We foundsomeonein that chamber. The question is who.”
“What the hell are you implying?” Rhett’s fire sparks along his forearms.
Stellan steps forward, voice sharp. “Her Ether inverted. Her scars vanished. She speaks like someone who never went through what Bree did.”
“She’s stronger,” I counter. “She’s finally—”
“Different,” Theo murmurs, and the word lands like a stone in still water.
I whirl on him. “You too?”
Theo doesn’t look at me. “The way she moves now. It’s not the same.”
Wes’s voice is barely a whisper. “She’s… still her. I think.”
Gray’s response is quiet, deliberate. “You *think*. Not you *know*.”
“She’s finally herself,” Rhett says, and the desperation gives him away.
“Free?” Thane’s laugh is bitter. “Or replaced?”
The room erupts—voices overlapping, everyone talking about her like she’s gone while I’m still bleeding from believing she’s here.
“She doesn’t hesitate anymore,” Wes says suddenly, and everyone stops.
His voice is so quiet we all have to strain to hear him. “When I touch her. When any of us touch her. She used to pause, just for a second, like she was reminding herself it was safe.” He swallows. “She doesn’t do that anymore. It’s like she never had to learn that touch can hurt.”
“That’s good,” I say, and even as I say it, I hear how wrong it sounds.
“Does it?” Gray asks. “Or does it mean whoever is wearing her face never had to learn that it could hurt.”
“Stop,” Rhett says, fire crawling along his knuckles. “You’re talking about her like she’s—”
“Different,” Theo answers. “Because she is. The way she walks now—shoulders back, chin lifted. Bree used to make herself smaller.”
“She’s planning the Council visit like a coronation,” Stellan says. “Does that sound like Bree to you?”
“She tried to force me to feed,” Thane says. The admission stills the room. “She pulled me close and offered her neck without hesitation. When I refused, she called me a coward.”
Theo closes his eyes. “Bree would never push like that. She would be terrified of forcing anyone.”
“I’ve been watching,” Gray says, keeping it calm. “She doesn’t check exits anymore. She doesn’t sit with a view of the door. She doesn’t scan for threats.” He looks at me. “Her scars are gone, Jace. All of them.”
“Whatever happened in that chamber healed her,” I say.
“Healed?” Thane’s voice is sharp. “Those scars were part of her. She wouldn’t have wanted them gone.”
“How do you know what she wanted?” Rhett’s voice breaks.
“Because she told me,” Wes says. “After Phil. She said the scars mattered because they meant she survived. She said removing them would be pretending it never happened. She said she’d earned them.”
“Maybe she changed her mind,” I try, and I hear that I don’t believe it either.
“In one night?” Stellan asks. “She went into that chamber afraid and came out complete? Without a doubt in her body?”
“She’s been sleeping with us,” Rhett says, and his eyes move to me and then to Wes.
Wes shakes his head.
