Seraphina's POV
The crowd was impossible.
Bodies pressed against me from every direction, a wall of heat and noise that made it hard to breathe, but I didn't stop moving. I couldn't. My legs were shaking, and every step sent a sharp sting through my back where Irina had stabbed the sigil, but I kept pushing forward anyway.
I had to see her.
Electra.
My whole body ached like I'd been split in two. The wound on my back hadn't stopped bleeding, the blood felt warm as it slid down my skin, soaking through the back of my shirt, but the pain wasn't the worst part. It was the hollowness inside me, the strange, heavy emptiness that grew stronger the closer I got to the palace gates.
I didn't understand it, but I knew it was connected to her.
Irina's voice cut through the noise behind me. "Seraphina, slow down!"
I barely turned. "I can't." My voice sounded breathless and rough. "She's out there."
