The prison was breaking.
“Myanin!”Gerick shouted.
Her head jerked toward him.
For one impossible heartbeat, their eyes met across realms.Relief crossed her face so fast it nearly killed him.Then the corridor beneath her feet cracked open.Darkness surged upward.Shade caught her before she fell.
And Gerick understood.The book had never trapped Myanin accidentally.
It had pulled her toward the unresolved fracture in her soul because the corruption feeding through the realms thrived on divided truths.On broken vows.On love twisted against itself until it became guilt and possession and fear.
The Nushtonia fed on hidden things.
And Myanin ...
She had spent years trying to split herself into pieces that could survive loving two people differently, even if she hadn’t realized it.
The foundations could not stabilize around division.
They required truth.
Gerick stepped toward the fractured opening before anyone could stop him.
“Gerick,” Lucian snapped.
“He’s figured it out,” Lilly whispered.
Of course, she understood.Lilly had loved two people differently, so of course she’d see before the others.
The corruption exploded through the tear in the realm again, slamming into the edges of the opening hard enough to destabilize the entire clearing.
The draheim roared through the surrounding forest.
Gerick never looked away from Myanin.And he realized the moment she saw it.The understanding.
“No,” she said immediately.
Even across realms, he heard the panic in her voice.
Shade’s eyes locked onto Gerick’s.
There was no triumph in the djinn male’s face.
Only dread.
Good.
Gerick would have hated him if there had been triumph.
“You don’t get to do this,” Myanin shouted.
A sad smile pulled briefly at Gerick’s mouth.There she was.Furious even now.
“The foundations are tied to truth,” he said quietly.
The tear in the realm carried his voice to them.
To her.
