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My stomach drops. Eddy looks toward the empty claw marks. "She turned."

"Toward what?"

"The trees."

"Then?"

Eddy swallows. "She stepped in front of me." Oh.

His hand closes around grass. "She told me to run."

Silence. Rhyven doesn't move. Neither does anyone else. Eddy looks up at him. "I didn't." His voice breaks. "I thought she sensed something outside the ward." He presses a hand against his mouth. "She pushed me back with her tail." A tear slips down his face. "Then I couldn't hear anything." Silence. The same as Aelindra.

Professor Vayne steps closer.

"What do you mean?"

"Everything stopped."

Eddy shakes his head. "The field. The dragons. Her. I could see her. She was right there. But the bond..."

His breathing catches. "It went quiet."

Rhyven crouches again. "Then what?"

Eddie looks at him. "She looked at me. One second. Maybe two. Then she was gone." No flash. No shadow. No creature. Gone.

"What happened to the bond?" Rhyven asks.

Eddy's face crumples. "It didn't break." He presses a fist against his chest. "It just became..." I already know. He says it anyway. "Unreachable." Professor Vayne looks toward me. Blood. The answer might be in those three drops. We both know it.

Rhyven does too. "No."

Again. I turn toward him. "Rhyven."

"The depletion is thirty-eight percent."

"I'm aware."

"We don't know what exposure—"

"I know." His eyes lock onto mine. Fear. Still there. Less overwhelming now. Controlled again. But I can feel it. That's the problem. I lower my voice. "We prepared for this."

His jaw tightens. "I know."

"We have protocols."

"I wrote half of them."

"Then trust them." Silence. That lands. Not because I challenged him. Because I know exactly what I'm asking. Trust Vayne. Trust the barriers. Trust me. Even now. Especially now.For several seconds, Rhyven says nothing.

Then he looks toward Professor Vayne. "Clear the site first."

Vayne nods. "Already planned."

"Double isolation."

"Yes."