4338.209 · July 28, 2018 AD
The Fire Behind Her Eyes
Grief is an anchor. But sometimes it marks the spot where the fire starts. Duke is dead. Joel is missing. Charity demands Jamie choose—farewell or rescue—and offers no room for both. As the camp fractures under impossible choices, Glenda presses her hand to the coins at her chest and screams at Clivilius for answers. It doesn't reply with words. It replies with fire. And in that burning, she knows: her father is alive.
The morning after the attack. Charity reveals the shadow panthers hunt in packs—four or five circled them in the dark. One followed Beatrix through the Portal. Beatrix is a Guardian. There are more Guardians.
Then the worse news lands: Joel is missing. Taken by something called a Portal pirate. Charity and Jamie must leave immediately if there's any hope of finding him alive. But Jamie holds Duke's wrapped body, and Charity offers no mercy: "Joel or Duke. You need to make a choice."
He chooses. He always does. Duke passes to Beatrix. Jamie kisses him goodbye.
And something in Glenda cracks open. Fury. Grief. The coins burn against her chest. Her father's voice thunders through her mind in German. Clivilius whispers incomplete truths then falls silent.
She screams for answers. What she receives instead is fire—surging through her veins, burning away doubt.
"My father is alive!"
