The ground trembled beneath our feet. Hazel’s scream still echoed through the clearing, shredding the night apart. My pulse pounded with the Mirror’s dying rhythm, its blue glow flickering weakly across the smoke.
Jax steadied me with one hand, his grip firm on my arm. “Sage…breathe.”
But I couldn’t. I could still feel her, Hazel’s energy flaring wild and panicked somewhere beyond the trees. The commander-fragment had dragged her toward the darkness, and every instinct in me screamed to follow.
Before I could move, a blur of motion shot past us. Zack.
He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t even look back.
“Hazel!” He roared, launching himself into the fray. His magic flared gold, exploding from his hands in a blinding arc that seared through the shadows. He tore into them with raw fury, his wo
