We gathered in a hidden chamber beneath the castle, its walls lined with ancient glyphs that seemed to pulse with a life of their own. The air was thick with the scent of aged stone and something sharper magic, perhaps, or the weight of our own fears coalescing into something almost tangible.
My breath was shallow, my mind racing. I could hear the others speaking around me, their voices distant murmurs through the fog of my anxiety.
Thalia's crimson eyes gleamed under the low torchlight as she laid out the plan. "Thalira's defenses are strongest at the core, where she's keeping Eileen. Direct assault will be near impossible. But if we create a diversion something big enough to draw her forces away we could open a window for Lise to slip in."
I swallowed, my throat dry. Eileen. Her name was a drumbeat in my mind, a steady, relentless rhythm that drove out everything else.
