I hit the floor hard.
My lungs seized, refusing to draw air for a second…two…three. Finally, I gasped, flailing, dragging my hands across the hardwood and finding broken glass and…chalk?
“Cinder? Mom?” The voice was frantic, familiar. “Holy shit!”
I rolled onto my side, coughing violently as air rushed into my burning chest. My vision swam, blurry shapes slowly morphing into faces.
Ember. Mayhem. Shade. Miles.
We were in the studio. Or…what was left of it. Splintered glass lay strewn about the shelves, and Ash’s tattoo equipment lay in disarray on the counter, some of the ink bottles having shattered on the ground, leaving splashes and streaks of blue and black on the hardwood.
“Mom?” I croaked, pushing myself up on trembling arms. “Discord?”
My mother lay next to me, gasping, her gray hair wild and static-charged. On my other side, Discord groaned, pushing himself to his knees, his eyes glowing a fierce, protective green as he scanned the room.
We were alive. Holy Hecate, we were alive!
The amulet sat in the center of the circle where we’d landed, pulsing with a rhythm that matched my own racing heart. Its power washed over us, a soothing balm that knitted our cells back together, grounding our souls to this plane when we should have been ripped apart by the journey.
“Thank the goddess you’re here, but…” Ember dropped to her knees, her hands hovering over us as if she were afraid we were hallucinations. “Where’s Dad?”
“The veil.” Discord scrambled to his feet, his taloned toes scraping on the hardwood.
I followed his gaze. The tear we’d just punched through hadn’t closed. It hovered in the center of the room, a jagged, shimmering window into the nightmare we’d just escaped.
On the other side, amidst the gloom of the cave, my dad stood frozen, his hand outstretched toward the empty space where his wife and daughter had just been.
“Dad!” I screamed, scrambling toward the rift.
“Cinder, no!” Discord grabbed my waist, holding me back from the unstable energy. “The rift is collapsing.”
The edges of the tear were already fraying, the fibers snapping shut like a zipper pulled by an invisible hand.
“He can’t stay there.” Tears blurred my vision.
“The amulet,” Discord said, his voice layered with demonic command as he pointed to the glowing pendant on the floor.
I dove for the necklace, my fingers closing around the warm metal, and I scrambled back to the tear. The wind from the closing rift whipped my hair across my face, blinding me for a moment before I shoved the strands aside.
“Dad, catch!” I wound up and threw the amulet with everything I had left.
It sailed through the shimmering window, spinning like a star. My father caught it, clutching it to his chest with a look of pure shock.
“You must return it to the goddess,” Discord shouted through the closing gap.
“I love you, Dad,” I screamed, my voice cracking. “Find Hecate. You’ve got this.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but the tear slammed shut with a finality that shook the house, leaving only a faint hint of sulfur in the air.
And just like that…my dad was gone. Again.
Silence descended on the room, heavy and suffocating.
Then, a sob broke from my mother’s throat. She crumpled forward, and Ember caught her, wrapping her arms around her before reaching out to snag me by the sleeve and drag me into the pile.
“You’re okay,” Ember whispered fiercely into my hair, squeezing me so hard my ribs ached. “You’re home.”
I clung to her, burying my face in her shoulder, breathing in the scent of smoke and spice that was purely Ember. Discord’s hand rested on my back, a solid, warm weight that anchored me to the earth.
