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All at once, they vanished.

Boom!

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

NIX

Aflash of light.

Heat as warm as the sun.

Spinning.

Lux’s arms were around me, and we were falling to the grass. I struggled onto my feet, everything blurry, blackening from the boom.

Just ahead, as my momentary loss of vision cleared, flames shot through the ceiling of the Elder’s Hall, chunks of the roof flying with them.

I dropped to my knees, tears overwhelming my gaze. With both hands, I fisted my hair, unsure if breath even made it into my lungs.

If their bodies were burned, even if I found their souls, I had nothing to put them into.

“It-it’s-it’s alright,” Lux stammered, shaking hands lifting to his face. “We-we can fix this. As long as we get their souls, we-we can put them into new bodies. We can do that same spell the boys used for Hana and Venark. We can—We’ll bring Véa back, and then, and then you can show her everything like Véa showed Hana and Venark, and—”

“Shut up,” I made out through quivering lips, watching the smoke thicken.

“It’s not the end. Nothing ever dies, remember? We’ll—”

“Shut the fuck up!”

He did.

And I sobbed.

I stared at that smoke rising into the blue sky, and I sobbed.

Even though that was true, even though we could do to Véa what the boys had done to Venark and Hana, it didn’t change that in this moment, she was gone. My babies were gone.

My babies.

I shot to my feet.

“Where are you going?” Lux asked, catching my hand before I could lapse. “You can’t go after them alone. We-we need to get a team together, and—”

“Friel and Aein.” There was hope in my voice, and I prayed it wasn’t useless. “Friel and Aein were with Brynn. They might be alive.”

His eyes grew to discs. He nodded fast. “Of course.”

“But you get that team.”

I lapsed home.

* * *

More smoke.

Smoke billowed from the roof of my home.

Brynn was on her knees beside several bodies, none small enough to be my children.