Annalyn POVThe pull from Ramona's matrix was strong enough to feel physical.I planted my feet in the grass and reached for the bond marks the way I had practiced in the east wing, all three at once, not sequentially but simultaneously, the way you grab something with your whole hand rather than one finger at a time.They responded without hesitation.Lucas's mark fired up through my spine first and my voice came out in a frequency I had only used once before, low and resonant and carrying a command that had nothing to do with words. Across the yard, a crack split the length of Ramona's stone matrix. Not a fracture. A clean groove opening along its longest carved line. She flinched, her grip on the stone tightening, and for the first time her composure broke into something that looked more like alarm than certainty.Calix's mark opened my senses wide. The gold compound in the matrix became as distinct and locatable to me as the grass under my feet, its concentration, its direction, t
Last Updated : 2026-05-14 Read more