They exchanged a few more pleasantries—Lena made one more joke about melting Zach’s 'glacier heart,' Kate admonished Emma to eat something—and then the screens went dark.
Emma sat in the quiet conference room for a long moment, processing.
The storm was over. The resort was recovering.
Zach touched her wrist in front of everyone.
He hadn't needed to. But he did it.
Chapter 46
Grounding Point
The conference roomdoor closed behind them with a soft click, too ordinary for what they’d experienced.
Zach stepped into the corridor; he and David flanking Nick in the unconscious formation they’d fallen into years ago. The resort hummed with purposeful activity around them—staff moving with determined efficiency, radios crackling updates about cleanup zones and supply deliveries.
The first team arrived at dawn: groundskeepers surveying damaged landscaping, maintenance crews assessing structural integrity, security personnel establishing new perimeter protocols. The kitchen staff set up a temporary feeding station in the west pavilion, keeping everyone fueled through the long day.
Normal. Functional.
Everything as it should be after a crisis.
Zach’s thoughts weren’t on staff assignments or repair schedules.
The cave. The artifact. Emma.
The way the stone glowed like a captured star, pulsing in rhythm with Emma’s heartbeat as she held it. The heat that radiated from it—not burning, but alive—before it vanished into light and air.
She didn’t let go.
His brothers moved beside him without speaking, their footsteps synchronized on the polished floor. They passed a window, and Zach caught a glimpse of the grounds—debris scattered across the manicured lawn, broken branches from the palm trees lining the walkway, puddles still standing in the low spots where the storm dumped inches of rain in hours.
The wind had calmed. The violence had passed.
But evidence of it remained.
Nick pushed open the exterior door, holding it for David and Zach. They emerged into afternoon air that tasted salt-clean and fresh, scrubbed by the storm. The sun hung behind scattered clouds, casting intermittent shadows across the property.
“Where to?” David asked, though his tone suggested he knew the answer.
Zach’s gaze tracked across the resort toward the cliffs on the far side. Toward Solombra Cave.
Nick caught the direction of his stare and nodded once. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.”
They walked.
The path took them past the pool where two maintenance workers were fishing out palm fronds and checking filter systems. Past the yoga pavilion, where someone had already swept away the worst of the debris, leaving wet streaks on the wooden deck.
The terrain grew rougher as they left the manicured resort grounds. Native vegetation crowded closer here—sea grape, buttonwood, and palmetto scrub scraped at their legs. The ground squished beneath their boots, waterlogged from the deluge.
Nick glanced at Zach. That look—the one indicating he was about to say something important and wanted to gauge whether his brother was ready to hear it.
“You’re keeping Emma.”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Nick said simply, before changing the subject. “So, the artifact. It’s gone.”
