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Another pulse hit.

She clutched her chest, knees buckling.

Someone caught her elbow. Maybe Junie. Maybe the ground. She couldn’t tell anymore.

Voices blurred. The market twisted around her.

The forest roared in her head.

It’s almost time.

Delilah collapsed, the world going black around her.

She came to in a haze of voices and the smell of damp earth.

“Delilah—can you hear me?” Rollo’s voice was thick with worry, somewhere near.

She tried to sit up, groaning as her head throbbed.

Warm arms eased her upright. His arms. She knew that scent, that grounding presence. Her head lolled against his shoulder.

“You’re alright,” he murmured. “You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

Missy’s face appeared above her, pale and pinched. “We called Hazel. She’s on her way.”

Delilah blinked hard, her voice a whisper. “The woods... they cracked. I felt it.”

Rollo brushed the hair from her face. “Felt what?”

“Everything. All of it. The wards... the veil… it’s breaking.” Her voice shook. “It’shim.Garrick. His magic’s twisted into something worse.”

Rollo’s jaw clenched. “He’s pushing through.”

Missy murmured a quiet curse. “Then the council was wrong to wait.”

“Help me up,” Delilah rasped.

“No way,” Rollo said. “You just dropped like a stone. You’re staying down.”

“I’m not fragile,” she hissed.

“No,” he said gently, tightening his grip. “But you’re still healing. Just let us help.”

She slumped, frustrated but too weak to argue.

A moment later, Hazel appeared—her hair wild, robes trailing leaves, eyes lit with quiet fire.

She knelt beside them, placing a palm against Delilah’s brow. “Spirits are louder now. That tether you made? It’s bound you tighter to the land than you realize.”

Delilah’s heart stuttered. “Then what do I do?”

Hazel’s gaze was somber. “You anchor. You prepare. And you let yourself be held, child. Because this next bloom? It won’t come easy.”

Delilah nodded, tears prickling.

She didn’t want to be scared. But she was.

And all she could do now was hold tight to the hand wrapped in hers and pray they’d all survive whatever was coming.