The car lurched forward, tires biting into the cracked asphalt as Sam pushed the engine far harder than any mechanic would approve of. Smoke seeped from beneath the hood, thin but worrying, a ghostly ribbon twisting into the night.
"Tell me it still drives," Noah muttered, bracing one hand on the dashboard.
Sam gritted her teeth. "It'll get us there. After that? No promises."
Emerald sat half-upright in the back seat, Sara's arm around her shoulders like an anchor holding her to the physical world. Everything inside her still buzzed, as though a swarm of angry bees had taken up residence beneath her skin.
But the buzzing wasn't the worst part.
It was the voice still echoing inside her skull.
"Run, then…"
Emerald squeezed her eyes shut. "How long was I out?"
"Five seconds," Sara whispered, brushing a trembling curl away from Emerald's forehead. "Maybe ten."
"It felt like hours," Emerald muttered.
Noah exhaled sharply. "What happened? One moment you're glowing like an emerald firecracker, the next you just vanished."
Sam's voice cut in, tight with an edge of panic she was clearly trying to hide. "And the scanner blew up like someone nuked its circuits from the inside. Just… popped. Gone."
Emerald swallowed. "I wasn't here. She pulled me in."
"She?" Noah turned in his seat. "The aunt?"
Emerald nodded. "Kaela."
Sara stiffened. "You saw her? You talked to her?"
Emerald looked out the shattered side window, letting the cold night air sting her face. "I didn't go willingly. My magic opened a rupture. She used it to drag me to her realm."
Sam let out a dry, humorless laugh. "Great. Multidimensional kidnapping. Love that for us."
"What did she want?" Noah pressed.
Emerald hesitated. The pulsing in her veins throbbed again an echo of the chamber's heartbeat.
"She wanted me to leave you. All of you."
Sara's hand tightened around Emerald's. "Absolutely not."
"She said being around you is dangerous," Emerald whispered. "That my power could hurt you."
Sam barked a sharp, irritated scoff. "Newsflash: a lot of things could hurt us right now. You're the one we're choosing."
"Kaela says the hunters will follow the moment I'm fully awake."
Noah nodded slowly. "Then we get ahead of them. Get safe. Figure out how to help you control whatever's going on."
Emerald looked away. "She said I can't hide anymore."
Sam shot her a glare in the mirror. "Good. Then we don't hide."
Sara added softly, "We protect each other. That's what we do."
A tight ache formed in Emerald's chest fear, gratitude, and guilt woven into a painful knot. She didn't deserve them. Any of them. Not when their lives would be the price of her awakening.
The trees thickened as the road wound upward into the hills, tall pines closing in like dark sentinels. The car rattled over gravel. They were nearly at the old hunting cabin Sam's supposed sanctuary.
But even before they reached it, Emerald felt a shift in the air.
A pressure.
A change in the dark.
She sat up straighter. "Stop."
Sam hit the brakes immediately.
"What now?" Noah whispered.
Emerald's glowing veins dimmed, but something else rose in their place a cold sense of being watched.
"It's here," Emerald murmured.
Sara swallowed. "The scanner?"
"No." Emerald shook her head. "Something else. Something that wasn't following us before."
A shape appeared ahead.
A silhouette between the trees.
Noah cursed under his breath. "Tell me that's not your aunt."
Emerald shook her head slowly. "It's not Kaela."
Sam's hand inched toward the knife she kept in the driver's door. "Human?"
"No," Emerald said quietly. "Not human."
The figure stepped forward, lit only by moonlight filtering through the branches.
Tall. Hooded. Cloaked in dark fabric that seemed to drink in the light around it. No visible face only a faint shimmer where one should've been, like a distorted reflection on water.
Sara's whisper trembled. "Emerald… what is that?"
Emerald's throat tightened. "A Wraithbound."
Noah whipped around. "A what now?"
"Hunters tied to old magic," Emerald said. "They track disturbances. Anyone who breaks a curse as strong as mine lights up like a beacon."
Sam's breath hitched. "And it found us this fast?"
Emerald nodded. "Because it's not working alone. This one's a vanguard."
The creature lifted a hand, palm facing them.
The air warped around its fingers.
Emerald felt the strike coming like static before lightning.
"Out!" Noah shouted. "Out of the car!"
They scrambled out just as a surge of blue energy sliced through the air and hit the hood. The engine exploded in a shower of sparks.
Sara screamed. Sam yanked her back as smoke billowed upward.
Emerald stumbled onto the gravel, her heartbeat racing. The Wraithbound advanced.
"Emerald," Noah said, grabbing her arm, "tell me you can do something."
"I can't." Emerald gasped as another pulse rumbled under her ribs. Too much magic. Too wild. Too volatile. "If I try, I'll destroy everything within twenty feet."
"Cool," Sam muttered, pulling her to her feet. "Love that. Fantastic."
The Wraithbound raised its hand again.
But as it prepared another strike, the trees to their left split apart with a deafening crack.
Another presence stepped into the clearing.
This one tall, armored, wrapped in silvery sigils that burned with white fire.
The Wraithbound froze.
Noah nearly fell backward. "Are you kidding me there's two of them?!"
"That's not a hunter," Emerald whispered. "That's a Sentinel."
Sara stared, wide-eyed. "Sentinel… as in…"
"The throne's enforcer," Emerald said. "Kaela's enforcer."
The Sentinel dropped to one knee bowing toward Emerald.
And in a voice that echoed with raw power, it said:
"Your Highness. I am here to escort you home."
Emerald's blood turned to ice.
Noah stepped between the Sentinel and her. "No. Nope. Absolutely not. She isn't going anywhere with you."
The Sentinel rose to its full height, towering over them.
"Move," it commanded.
The Wraithbound hissed and lunged at the Sentinel.
In a blinding burst of silver fire, the Sentinel struck it back, the shockwave rippling through the forest.
Sam grabbed Emerald. "We need to run!"
"We can't outrun either of them!" Emerald cried.
Sara grabbed Emerald's other hand. "Then what do we do?"
Emerald looked from the fighting creatures to her friends bruised, terrified, loyal.
And she made a choice.
"I stop hiding," she whispered.
Her veins glowed.
Her skin shimmered.
The pulse inside her roared awake.
Noah's eyes widened. "Emerald!"
She stepped forward.
The air shivered.
And Emerald unleashed the magic she had been terrified of since childhood.
Green light erupted, swirling around her like a living storm.
And the world answered.