Sera and Talia crashed through the collapsing gateway and landed hard on stone.
Not the gardens of Mira's Estate.
Stone floors. High ceilings. The great room of the Obsidian Ridge palace, where Thomas had brought them on his last desperate gamble, where the portal sigil he had tossed to Talia had carried them instead of to Black River for safety or anywhere else they'd planned.
He'd sent them here, to Obsidian Ridge, where Talia's family and pack waited. Where there were warriors and healers, and the one place on earth where Seraphine wouldn't dare follow.
Not immediately.
Sera shifted back into human form, gasping, her bare skin covered in blood and magic-burn. She looked toward the space where the portal had been—where Thomas should have been coming through—and she understood in tha
