Miri's Pov
I was being dragged by my hair.
The jagged stones beneath my knees tore into my skin as Aeila yanked me across the courtyard, fury radiating off her like wildfire. Her nails were hooked deep into the roots of my hair, and I could feel every step of her boots crunching across the bloodstained ground. The air reeked of magic gone wrong—burned air, smoldering flesh, and something else: the sour stench of the rift still wide open behind us.
"Fix it!" she screamed, whirling around and slamming my face into the dirt. "Close the damn rift before we all get swallowed whole by those monsters!"
I groaned, coughing up a mouthful of dust. "I can't. I told you, I don't know how."
That earned me a kick to the ribs. Pain exploded across my side, and I bit back a scream. She didn't care. Aeila was unraveling. I could see it in the way her hands trembled, the way her eyes kept darting back toward the rift as if afraid it would grow teeth and bite her in half.
