The impact stole the breath from her lungs before the sound reached her ears.
Stones trembled as the wall ruptured inward, not exploding but peeling. Selene hit the floor first, rolling with practiced instinct, already between the girl and the collapsing debris, her blade finally leaving its sheath in a clean arc that rang sharp against the chaos.
Dust and shards filled the air, the sanctum's ancient wards flaring too late, their light shattering against something that had slipped through the cracks long before alarms could form.
The girl skidded across the polished stone, pain lancing up her side as she caught herself on one knee, claws biting into the floor to stop her momentum. The hum inside her spiked violently, except it was not in warning this time but in recognition, a pulse that felt sickeningly familiar.
Out of the smoke, a figure stepped through the broken wall.
She was slender, dressed in layered dark fabric that moved like liquid shadow, her face hidden behind a pale mask etched with symbols that made the girl's vision ache if she stared too long. The mask had no mouth, only a smooth curve where expression should have been, but the eyes behind it burned with a knowing light that felt far too old to belong to someone so young.
Chains of faint red energy trailed from her wrists, not bound to her but following, as though something unseen were holding the other end far below.
"There you are," the masked girl said softly, her voice carrying through the dust without effort. "You took your time."
Selene did not hesitate. She lunged at her without a second thought.
Their blades met with such force that it sent the debris around them flying, her steel was met with resistance that should not have existed, the blade halting inches from the intruder's throat as an invisible force caught it mid-swing. The masked girl tilted her head, curious rather than threatened, and with a flick of her fingers sent Selene flying back into a fractured column.
The impact cracked stone and drove the breath from Selene's chest, but she was already moving again, teeth bared in a snarl that promised blood.
The council chamber dissolved into panic behind them, guards shouting, wards reigniting, the queen's voice cutting through the noise as orders snapped into place, but none of it touched the space between the girl and the intruder. That space felt sealed, narrowed, almost suffocating.
"You don't belong to them," the masked girl continued, her gaze never leaving the girl. "They would have caged you eventually, made it look like protection, as a study, maybe even mercy. But the ones below, they have waited longer. They remember what you are meant to be."
A sharp pressure clamped around the girl's chest, not physical but internal, tugging at the same place where the hum lived. Images once again flooded her mind without permission, there were chains wrapped around pillars buried deep underground, vast shapes stirring in endless dark, eyes opening one by one as something called her home.
She cried out, dropping fully to her knees as the glow beneath her skin flared bright enough to cast shadows through the smoke.
"No," Selene shouted, forcing herself upright despite the blood running down her temple. "Get away from her!"
The masked girl finally glanced at Selene, and for a brief moment something like amusement flickered behind the hollow eyes of her mask. "You cannot protect her from what is older than your city," she said. "I was sent to retrieve what was lost, nothing more."
The chains of red energy lashed forward.
They wrapped around the girl's wrists, cold and burning all at once, and the pull that followed was absolute, yanking her toward the masked figure with terrifying force. Her claws scraped uselessly against the stone as panic surged, the hum inside her screaming now, wild and unrestrained, answering the call even as she fought it.
"Let her go," Selene growled, hurling her blade, not at the masked girl but at the chains themselves.
The strike did not sever them, but it staggered the pull, just enough for the girl to gasp and dig deep, instinct overriding fear. The glow within her flared violently, light ripping outward in a shockwave that shattered the remaining glass constructs and sent everyone still standing crashing to the ground. The masked girl slid back several steps this time, boots carving grooves into the stone as she absorbed the impact.
For the first time, her voice sharpened. "Careful," she warned. "You don't know how to use that yet."
The girl forced herself upright, shaking, her vision swimming, but her eyes locked onto the masked figure with raw defiance. "I wil not be controlled or go with people who hide in the shadows like cowards."
Selene glanced around, seeing the masked person was distracted, she dashed forward, her blade glowing with a purple hue as she struck the chain, one so hard it shattered against the energy with a sound like breaking glass, the force rebounding violently and sending Selene skidding across the floor.
This time the chains shattered, but not before throwing the girl the final distance toward the masked figure, who caught her effortlessly, one arm locking around her waist with chilling certainty.
The girl gasped, her fingers clawing at the fabric of the masked girl's cloak, her vision blurring as the sanctum began to distort around them, walls stretching, and the sigils warping as if being pulled into a deeper layer of reality.
"Selene—" she tried, the word tearing from her throat.
Selene surged forward anyway. Something inside her broke past restraint, past discipline, past the line she had sworn never to cross. Her eyes ignited, flooding with a livid, furious red that bled into the whites as her aura exploded outward, raw and lethal.
The stones cracked beneath her boots as she launched herself with a roar that shook the chamber, every instinct screaming to take her back.
But she was too late.
The masked girl stepped backward into the folding darkness, chains pulling tight as the world around them collapsed inward like a closing wound. For a heartbeat, the girl and Selene's gazes locked, fear and fury tangling painfully between them, and then the darkness swallowed her whole.
The chamber sealed itself with a violent implosion of air and light.
Selene hit the ground where the girl had been standing, her blade gouging deep into the marble and eyes still burning red, her breath ragged and dangerous. Around her, the guards froze, while the council watched, recoiling as the weight of her presence turned suffocating.
"She was taken," Selene said, her voice low, shaking with contained violence. "And I will tear them apart if I have to in order to get her back."