Marcus came through first, depositing his three charges on solid ground. Kai followed, his two rescued children already looking more solid in normal dimensional space. Callum emerged last—because of course he insisted on checking that everyone else was out before saving himself—carrying the remaining two children like they weighed nothing.
The moment they cleared the threshold, Samantha released the anchor.
The dimensional pocket collapsed with a sound that would haunt her dreams—reality crumpling like paper, folding into nothing, taking the prison and its chains and all evidence of what had been done to these children into dimensional void.
They stood in the flooded sub-basement, dripping toxic water and dimensional energy, surrounded by seven children who were slowly becoming solid, becoming real, becoming saved.
"Did we—" Kai started, his voice rough with exhaustion.
