"Why am I here again?"
The same deep red scenery resolved around Alaric's consciousness. Familiar now, this strange liminal space where Brandon's past played out in fragments he couldn't control or stop.
He was back where he'd left off. The breach in the wall. The aftermath of Malachai's first assault.
Elara knelt in the rubble, exactly as he'd last seen her. But the scene continued now, unfrozen.
Kira reached her first. Crashing through the ring of demon soldiers with violet hair streaming, amber eyes wide with horror. She dropped to her knees beside Elara and pulled her into desperate embrace.
"Elara... Elara, look at me—" Kira's hands moved frantically over the wounds, trying to assess damage, trying to do something. "Where's mom? Where's—"
"Gone." Elara's voice was raw. Broken. "He took her. He took her and I couldn't... I couldn't stop him—"
