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His voice bounces off the hollow stone walls, ricocheting in the eerie quiet of the spiral grounds. The crumbling buildings loom around us, their windows empty, doorways gaping like mouths ready to swallow anyone dumb enough to step inside.

The cold presses against my bare skin, damp and biting, but none of us notice anymore. It’s not the weather that matters. It’s the fact that her footsteps stop here—like she vanished.

I glance down at the cracked stones under my feet, the mud smeared and broken by her prints until they simply… don’t continue. No exit. No signs she circled back. Just absence. The worst kind.

Silas keeps going like a man possessed, stalking the courtyard, spinning like he thinks if he turns fast enough, she’ll appear. "Luna, baby, if you come out now, I’ll let you lick whipped cream off Ambrose’s abs!"

Ambrose shoots him a look that could kill lesser men, but Silas is immune to death threats. Has been for centuries.

"I’ll even add Riven’s ass to the deal," Silas adds, winking over his shoulder, like this is a goddamn carnival and not a hunt for the girl who’s unmade all of us.

Caspian huffs beside me, scrubbing a hand over his jaw. "You're going to scare her deeper into hiding with that mouth."

"I’ll scare her into running straight to me," Silas counters, grinning wildly, though the corners of it fray. His voice fractures when he yells again, louder this time, as if sheer volume will shake her loose from wherever she’s buried herself. "Come on, love! It’s a full Sin Binder flesh buffet out here, and it’s only for you."

I scan the buildings, the jagged outlines of broken towers and fractured walls. Too many places to hide. Too many shadows that could swallow her whole. My stomach knots tight.

Behind me, Orin stands quiet, watchful, and shirtless like the rest of us—except Lucien. Lucien's the only one who refused, arms crossed, shirt still intact like he’s above all this, even now.

"She’s here," I mutter, half to myself, half to the others. "Her tracks stop here."

"And she’s hiding from us," Ambrose says flatly, scanning the buildings like he’s cataloguing every exit.

Silas breaks the moment by cupping his hands again and hollering, "Luna! If you don’t come out, I’m going to tell everyone how you begged me to touch you last week!"

I choke on a laugh despite myself. "She’s gonna kill you when she hears that."

"If she’s here, she’s listening." Silas’s voice drops, the edges of it softening just enough to hurt. "I just need her to come out."

He keeps circling, calling her name like a curse, a prayer, a lifeline.

We’re all standing there like idiots—immortal, lethal men, stripped bare and exposed for a girl who keeps slipping through our fingers.

And somewhere in this crumbling courtyard, she’s listening.

Silas is pacing now like a man with no earthly shame, bare-chested, mud streaked across his chest, like he’s auditioning for the world’s most depraved burlesque act.

"Maybe," he says, dragging out the word like he’s delivering divine wisdom, "we need to strip more."

I scrub a hand down my face. "No."

"But hear me out," Silas presses, turning to the rest of us like we’re the idiots here. "What if—just what if—we all pretend to be strippers? A private show. For Luna. She’d love that."

Ambrose’s groan is somewhere between dying and homicidal.

Before I can shut him down, Silas flings his arms wide and bellows into the courtyard, "Luna! Baby! I’ll let you have as many clones of me as you want!"

I freeze. "What the fuck does that even mean?"

He doesn’t answer, too busy spinning theatrically, throwing his voice up to the cracked towers like she’s a princess trapped in one. "Endless Silas’! Your dream, right?"

I’m halfway to telling him to shut the hell up when the courtyard itself bites back.

"Silas Veyd, shut up!" Her voice cracks like a whip, sharp, furious, and impossibly near. It ricochets between stone and shadow like she’s everywhere at once. "That was a private thing!"

Silas halts mid-spin, jaw dropping. "Oh, she’s listening."

A grin splits his face, wild and wicked, and he cups his hands again. "Baby, come out! I can do the thing with the rope too!"