He gave her one more squeeze and then reluctantly released her.She was right.They needed to talk.Then, they needed to make a plan and take action.
The tension loosened, just a fraction, and Rezer let himself breathe again.He took in the room properly now—the familiar scent of herbs and old paper, the way the space felt anchored despite the magic threaded through it.Syndra’s influence lingered in the stones and shelves, quiet but steady.Enough to make Enigma noticeable.Enough to make it vulnerable when the realm on the other side of the mirror fell into turmoil.
“Did you feel Triktapic’s power?”he asked, turning his eyes back to her face.
Lisa crossed her arms loosely in front of her.“Now that you say that, I guess I did.There was something off today.It was like static under my skin.I thought it was stress.”She hesitated.“Or you.”
His chest tightened.“I’m sorry.I tried to get here sooner, but the Chamber had some tricks up its sleeve that made my journey a little more difficult than it usually is.It kept me in limbo at an anchor point for way too long.”
“Good,” she said with a small smirk.“Someone or something should make your life alittledifficult, considering you’ve driven me crazy for months.”She paused and he watched many emotions cross her face.“So there’s more to all of this than just your dreams and it’s obviously affecting others besides you if Trik is getting involved.And, I’m a little afraid to ask, but what about Elora, Oakley, or Syndra?”
Rezer held her gaze for a long moment before answering.He had faced down armies with less hesitation than this.Not because the truth frightened him, but because what it would cost her to hear it might.
“I don’t know where they are now,” he said finally.“Not precisely.”
Lisa didn’t interrupt.She waited.That, more than anything, made his chest tighten.
“I saw Syndra,” he continued.“Oakley.Tamsin.They were moving through the forest together not long ago.Purposefully.Whatever’s happening, they’re aware and I’m sure Trik is the one who sent them out.But he didn’t have a clue what he was sending them out into.”His jaw set.“But the Chamber isn’t playing fair.It’s using the forest.Paths don’t hold.Locations shift.Knowing where someonewasdoesn’t mean much.”
Lisa absorbed that quietly, fingers flexing once at her side.“And Elora?”
The name landed like a blade sliding between his ribs.This was her daughter, and he had no idea just how much danger she was in, nor did he know how to protect her.
“I didn’t see her directly,” he admitted.“Not with my own eyes.But the Chamber showed her to me.”His voice darkened.“Along with Cassie.”
Lisa’s breath caught, sharp and instinctive.“Showed you how?”
“Just like the dreams, in my mind.They’re moving the players they want like pieces on a board,” he said.“The girls weren’t frightened.They also aren’t just taking a meander through the lovely woods.”His mouth tightened.“They’re beingdrawn.”
Her shoulders squared immediately.“Drawn where?”
“To itself.”His eyes flicked briefly to the mirror, then back to her.“It needs them, or whatever is inside needs them.”He thought back to all that he’d learned while traveling through the forest being thwarted by the magic.“I think that Elora and Cassie are somehow the key to the Chamber being opened and what’s inside being set free.”
Lisa swore under her breath.“Of course Elora is smack dab in the middle of this.I swear she attracts trouble like manure attracts flies.”
A corner of his mouth twitched despite himself.“I’m sure she’d appreciate the analogy."
Lisa snorted.“Being compared to a pile of crap?Yes, she’d no doubt have few choice things to say.”
Silence settled between them, heavier now, weighted with implication.Lisa paced a few steps, then stopped, turning back to him, her back straightening, not defensive, just bracing.
“And me?”she asked quietly.“How do I play into all of this,besidesthe fact that I’m going after my daughter and her best friend.”
Rezer didn’t argue the fact.He wasn’t letting her out of his sight, even if he didn’t like the idea of her near the stone door he’d been seeing in his dreams.“Those things in the Chamber, whatever they are, showed meyou.Not as bait,” he said immediately.“Not exactly.More like leverage it hadn’t decided whether to use yet.”His hands curled slowly at his sides.“It wanted me to understand what it could take if I stepped out of line.It called youcollateral.”His jaw tightened at the memory.
Lisa laughed once, sharp and humorless.“That’s comforting.”
“I’m donewaitingto see what else isrevealedto me.This Chamber of Light and Dark, the inhabitants, they messed up,” he replied.“Bringing you into the picture?That was the moment it miscalculated.”
Her eyes narrowed.“Rezer?—”
“No,” he cut in gently but firmly.“Listen to me.It doesn’t get you.It doesn’t get tothinkabout you.Whatever game it believes it’s playing ends the second it reaches toward you again.”
She searched his face, clearly trying to decide whether this was possessiveness, fear, or something more dangerous.“And if it doesn’t stop?”she asked.
His answer came without hesitation.“Then I dismantle it.Piece by piece.Chamber, forest, anchor—whatever is hiding behind it all.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring,” she said.
