From the shadows, a voice answers—quiet, strained.
“I knew you’d be back.”
Everyone freezes.
A figure steps forward into the light—black, unsteady, magic flickering weakly around her.
My brain stutters.
Wait.
There are two of them.
Same face. Same build. Same dark hair.
But the one in the shadows looks wrong—hollowed out, exhausted. Her green eyes are dim, her shoulders tight with stress.
Riley.
Gray’s growl rumbles low. “What the hell—”
“Is that—” Jace cuts himself off. “What the fuck?”
Bree doesn’t move back.
Doesn’t look afraid.
Just meets Riley’s gaze and waits.
Riley’s eyes track the familiars, the daisies, the way the Ether pools around Bree’s feet.
For a heartbeat, it’s like the forest itself can’t tell which one of them is real.
Chapter 34
Bree
Riley steps out of the shadows across the clearing—and her knees buckle.
I move. Around the well’s stone rim, through the glowing daisies.
“Bree, don’t!”
“It’s a trap!”
“Stay back!”
Voices behind me. I don’t stop.
My arms wrap around her waist before she falls.
The Ether between us flares—silver meeting black. Then settles.
No attack. No trick. Just grief.
I brace her weight, adjusting my stance. The ground gives beneath us. The well rises behind me now, stone veined with faint light.
The air tastes of the Void—thin and wrong.
