MACE

We emerged from the mine into the fading light of dusk, the air thick with the smell of pine and damp earth. My mother, frail and barely breathing, was a dead weight in my arms.

"We have to get her back," Cassandra said, her voice urgent, her hand on my shoulder. "She needs rest. And protection. Michael will know we were here. He'll feel the energy shift."

I nodded, my jaw clenched. I could feel it too—a subtle vibration in the air, a flicker of energy that had been dormant for so long. It was the same feeling I got when I was near Jaynayah. A connection.

But this...