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Wind ripped through my blood-stained hair as my hands reached for her, readying to pull her against me.

Our bodies collided with bruising force, sobs bursting from our lungs on impact as her hands frantically pushed my head into the crook of her neck.

Her heart beat in a wild rhythm against my own as my arms tightened around her waist, my fingers digging into her flesh to anchor me against her.

It was just me and her now.

We were the last two standing—the last two breathing.

Soft footsteps padded across the grass and I lifted my head just enough to see Asrai approaching through swollen, bloodshot eyes. Her own gaze glistened like broken glass from the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. She placed a gentle hand on Cin’s back as she met my eyes, silent understanding passing between us.

We had all lost a part of ourselves today.

“We can not stay out in the open like this,” Asrai said quietly, her voice strained. “We need to get to shelter.”

Cin’s arms tightened around me for only a moment before she nodded and slowly released her hold on me. Her hand clasped tight around mine like she would never let it go again.

Together, we walked over to where Landers stood with the others. Without a word, he reached his hand out and Cin tangled her fingers between his.

The tether locked around us in a blur of wind and darkness and I let it thrash against my limbs—let it pull me apart. There was comfort in the pain; it distracted me from the anguish beating under my chest that I couldn’t escape.

We materialized in the center of Cin and Landers’s living room, sunlight streaming through the windows as our boots landed on the worn wooden floors. The heaviness plaguing the air grew thicker with each person that tethered in as if it were trying to suffocate us.

My eyes met with Dukovich’s as he tethered across the room, his tunic shredded and bloody, fresh scars strewn across his chest from where Cin had healed him.

My heart swelled against my will as I looked at him.

It was the second time he had risked his life for me.

The second time he had shown me that he was not willing to let me die.

Slowly, he slipped through the group toward my side, his eyes never straying from mine—never looking away.

Cin’s hands slid from mine, and as she stepped away from my side, his fingers took her place.

I hated how much the warmth of his skin soothed me. The relief I felt knowing that he was still here, that we had survived those dungeons together.

My eyes trickled over the room, watching as Azeyr, Siggy, Nantia, and Essara whispered to each other over the bar cart as they poured themselves a drink. I didn’t trust them. And I sure as hell didn’t want them anywhere near the conversation we were about to have. But before I could utter a single word, Andrues tethered into the room.

His eyes locked on mine for only a breath before sliding to my hand clutching Dukovich’s and went wholly still.

My heart jolted at the look that flashed behind his eyes.

Heat burned underneath my skin as I instinctively pulled away from Dukovich, putting distance between me and both the men. I couldn’t deal with this right now. There were too many emotions flooding my body, too many feelings forcing their way into my chest and my heart wasn’t big enough to hold them.

I didn’t want them, any of them.

I didn’t want to feel anything.

Asrai’s voice cut into the room and I thanked the gods for the interruption.

I wasn’t safe inside my own head, not right now.

“I know this loss feels like it could break us, like we will never recover. But we cannot let it—not now. Not when the fight has just begun.” Asrai looked at each of us in turn, a tear finally breaking free from the corner of her eye. She did not move to wipe it away. “Wren was my child, myson—” Her voice cracked on the word and the sound could have killed me. “Wren sacrificed his life for us, for a chance at a better future. We owe it to him, to Ardan, to everyone we have lost to keep going.” Tears flowed down both of her cheeks in tandem now, and I couldn’t stop the anger the sight caused.

Shewasour mother.

She was the only mother we had ever known and her children were being slaughtered—hunted.