Natalie~
The sky loomed with bruised clouds as I stood beside Fox, our silhouettes stark against the glowing city beneath us. We were perched on the edge of a crumbling skyscraper, thirty stories up. The wind tangled in my hair, tugged at my clothes, as if trying to drag me off the edge. Fox stood still beside me, tall and relaxed, as though he wasn't standing on a death trap in the sky. His golden eyes gleamed like molten suns, narrowed in concentration.
His red hair whipped violently in the wind, flames licking his temples even though no fire had been summoned. He raised one hand high, fingers splayed. The heat in the air crackled as he sent sparks trailing upward like flares.
"He's not in the city," Fox said, voice taut with frustration. "I've scanned every quadrant twice."
I didn't respond. I was too lost in my thoughts. In my guilt. In my silence.
Jasmine murmured inside me, "you're spiraling again, Mara."
"How can I not?" I whispered to her, to myself.
