“And running.”
The words landed like a verdict — efficient, dismissive, final.
“Ooh, I like running!” Ash said brightly, sliding an arm around me and hauling me upright. “Where can we go?”
“There’s a track,” Kieran said. “Lower level. Built into the rock.”
Sable gave a single nod.
“Good,” she said. “She’ll start there.”
She turned away then, as if the moment —and I— were already finished.
Chapter 10
Seph
Sy was out on the edge of the track in dragon form, perched along the wall overlooking the valley.
His dragon was monstrous — black as onyx, scales catching the low light like polished stone. Vast wings lay folded at his sides, every line of him coiled and watchful.
He was my sentinel.
When I entered the space, his head turned slowly. He inclined it in a brief nod to me in acknowledgment.
His gaze slid past me to Kieran, where he stood talking intensely to Sable.
For a moment, those serpentine eyes narrowed, something ancient and territorial stirring beneath the surface.
Then Sy turned back to the horizon, attention already withdrawn, as if Kieran no longer warranted it.
Ash tugged lightly on my arm. “Come on,” he murmured.
He pulled me toward the track, away from the wall. It didn’t take long for Ash to lap me.
Running was not my forte.
Still, I welcomed the air — the burn in my lungs, the steady rhythm of my feet. I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed it until now.
As I circled the track, my thoughts drifted — unwilling — to my father.
To my family.
Did they know yet what had happened? Would they come for him?
Would my mother even notice that I was gone?
I hated that these thoughts still had teeth. That they could still sink in so easily.
Life had changed for me since Darkmoor. I wasn’t the same girl in that room, waiting for her life to begin.
But who was I?
A void. A vacuum. A bridge.
I looked at Sy.
Persephone Quinn?
