I need to get out. I need to breathe. I’m trapped, and I can’t be trapped?—
Wind howls against the glass dome. Thunder crashes so close that the Observatory shakes, sending astronomical instruments clattering across the star-mapped floor. The brass telescope groans as it shifts on its base.
The golden fire in Tobias’s palm gutters and dies.
And then?—
Crack.
Lightning strikes the dome.
The world turns silver. Glass explodes inward, razor-sharp shards raining down like deadly snow. I throw my arms over my head as rain lashes my face, wind tears at my hair, and electricity crackles through every nerve ending in my body.
The lightning calls to me. And the moment the electricity connects with my palm, my heartbeat steadies. My breathing evens out. The panic doesn’t vanish—it’s more like the storm wraps around it, absorbs it, and makes it bigger than my fear.
Tobias stumbles backward, creating a heat shield to protect us from the debris. His careful stillness is gone—he’s moving on instinct now.
“Get down! Stay under the shield!” he shouts over the howling wind.
Before I can answer, a section of the wall behind Tobias shimmers and dissolves into a doorway that wasn’t there a second ago. Cold air rushes through the opening, carrying the smell of old stone and deep earth.
Logan.
He moves through the chaos like he was born in it, storm-gray eyes finding mine before his hand closes around Tobias’s wrist. Fire flares from his other hand, the edges burning black.
The air shifts—my magic quieting the storm.
Tobias drops his shield and pulls his wrist out of Logan’s grip as quickly as possible, his hand shaking.
Logan faces Tobias, holding his black-lined flames in front of him.
“You searched her memories,” he says, his words layered and rich in the way I know means he’s using compulsion. “She stepped outside for air during the ball and got lost in the storm. Her story checked out perfectly.”
Tobias’s pupils dilate, his eyes going unfocused. “Her story checked out perfectly,” he repeats. “She got lost in the storm.”
“You don’t need to speak with her again. She’s cleared.”
“She’s cleared.”
“I was never here.” Logan’s flames burn brighter. “The lightning struck, the ceiling shattered, and you were alone with Jade Harrington when it happened.”
“Jade and I were alone,” Tobias murmurs.
Logan snuffs out his fire and steps back, his eyes meeting mine again. His expression is wild, but his voice is controlled when he speaks.
“Go back to the ballroom. Now.”
He disappears back into the passages, the rain obscuring the door that shimmers in and out of existence.
I stand frozen in the wreckage, rain streaming down my face, processing what just happened.
Logan was here. Logan compelled Tobias. Logan saved me. Again.
Now he’s gone, and I’m standing in the ruins of the Observatory with a Council investigator who thinks he finished reading my memories and found nothing of note.
The thunder grows distant, the wind dies down to a whisper, and the rain slows to a drizzle. Through the shattered dome, patches of gray sky break through the clouds.
“We need to leave.” Tobias’s eyes refocus, and he gazes around the destruction surrounding us. One trembling hand comes up to his temple, a crease forming between his brows. “It isn’t safe up here.”
