Chapter 187

• Morning light crept through the broken walls of the building, painting everything in a pale gold haze. The floor was littered with shattered wood and glass.
• Selene sat on the front steps, her body still, eyes locked on the distant line of the forest where Lydia had disappeared. The breeze lifted her hair, brushing strands across her blood-streaked face. She didn’t move to fix it. Her hands were raw from clawing through debris all night, as if she could still find her daughter buried somewhere beneath it all.
• Caius stood a few feet away, watching her. His arm was bandaged, the wound from the ambush still fresh. He’d tried talking to her since dawn, but nothing seemed to reach her.