The baby’s thin screams.
“Sule,” she managed.
Her voice broke around his name.
“What happened?”
“It’s Leena.”
Silence answered.
Not even breath came through the line.
Mary closed her eyes.
“You need to come home.”
“Put her on the phone.”
The command came instantly.
Mary’s knees weakened.
“Sule—”
“Put Leena on the phone.”
“I can’t.”
The words disintegrated in her throat.
On the bed, Rhen did not move.
His arms remained locked around Leena as though death might still be forced to surrender if he refused to release her.
Sule’s voice changed.
The authority left it.
What remained was quieter and infinitely more dangerous.
“Mary.”
She gripped the phone with both hands.
“Tell me.”
Mary looked once more at the queen who had made a home inside a fortress built for monsters.
“She’s gone.”
* * *
Sule did not remember standing.
One moment, he had been seated at the council table with the phone against his ear, Isa and the coven arranged across from him.
The next, his chair lay broken behind him.
