Mira POV
The seal broke at 4:47 in the morning and it felt like dying.
Mira woke gasping, her entire body convulsing like she was being electrocuted from the inside. Blood poured from her nose. Her ears. Her eyes. Her spine was on fire with the Guardian Mark burning its way to the surface of her skin like it was trying to claw its way out of her body.
The Last City was screaming.
Two thousand years of dormant magic, sleeping and patient and held down by seals that had never been meant to last forever, suddenly ripped open like a wound. The magic wasn't angry. It was confused. Lost. Like a child waking up in darkness and not understanding why.
Mira rolled out of bed and collapsed on the bathroom floor. Her hands were shaking so hard she could barely grip the sink. She pulled herself up and saw her reflection in the mirror. Blood streaming down her face. Eyes wide with panic. And down her spine, visible through the thin sleep shirt, the Guardian Mark was glowing so bright it hurt to look at.
Her phone buzzed.
Uncle Lysander. Already calling. Already knowing.
Mira picked up before the second ring. She couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't do anything but listen to her uncle's voice saying her name like it was a prayer.
"The city is awake," he said quietly. No question. No surprise. Like he'd been waiting for this his entire life. "The seal is broken. Mira, the balance is broken."
"It hurts," she whispered. "Uncle, it's screaming."
"I know baby. I know. Where are you?"
"Home. Brooklyn. I can feel it calling from the forest. It's like something is ripping the magic open and the city is trying to hold itself together and it's using me to do it."
There was a pause. A moment of silence that felt like the world holding its breath.
"Get to the forest," her uncle said. His voice had changed. Become harder. Become the voice of the warrior who'd spent eighteen years training her for exactly this moment. "Drive now. Do not wait. Do not pack anything. Just go."
Mira hung up and started moving.
She dressed in the dark, throwing on clothes that didn't matter. Her hands were still bleeding. The Guardian Mark was still burning. But she moved with purpose because this was what she'd been trained for. This was the moment that all of her eighteen years of hiding and protecting and keeping herself separate from the normal world had been building toward.
The drive took ninety minutes and every second felt like an hour.
The city was waking up around her. Animals moving in ways they shouldn't. The sky taking on colors that didn't exist in nature. The air tasting like copper and lightning and something else. Something ancient. The magic was spreading outward from the forest like a contagion, remaking the world in its image, and Mira could feel it happening because part of her was already inside that magic, already merged with it, already screaming along with the city.
She drove faster.
The coordinates were burned into her blood. The forest location that had been forbidden her entire life. The place where the city slept. The place where the seal had been holding for two thousand years.
The place where someone had just broken it.
The forest appeared out of nowhere. One moment there was normal world and the next there was trees that moved like they were alive and air that tasted like electricity and a shimmer in space where reality bent. Mira abandoned her car and ran into the trees.
The forest recognized her.
Branches moved out of her way. The ground felt warm beneath her feet like it was alive and breathing. The magic pulled at her skin, called to her blood, sang in a voice that sounded like her mother's.
She ran toward the entrance and saw him standing there.
Rowan Ashford in front of the sealed doorway. The entrance made of ancient stone and living light. His skin was glowing. His body was covered in marks that looked like symbols. And he was smiling like he'd just done the most beautiful thing in his entire life.
Mira hit him without thinking.
Her fist connected with his jaw and he fell hard, blood spraying from his mouth. But she didn't stop. Rage was pouring through her like fire and betrayal was burning through her veins like poison and the magic inside her was screaming so loud she could barely hear her own voice.
"I trusted you," she said, each word a weapon. "You broke the seal. You have doomed everyone I love."
Rowan was on the ground, blood dripping from his mouth, and he was staring at her with shock written across his face. Like he'd never expected her to be real. Like he'd never thought about what would happen to the people on this side of the seal when he broke it open.
Like he'd never considered that the woman from the museum would be standing in front of him burning with magic and fury and pain.
"I did not know you existed," Rowan said. His voice was broken. His eyes were confused like he was still trying to understand something that made no sense. "I did not know it would hurt like this. I am sorry. But I cannot undo it."
The words hit her harder than any physical blow could have.
He didn't know she existed. He'd broken the seal protecting two thousand years of civilization and the only thing he felt was sorry that it hurt. Sorry like he was apologizing for stepping on her foot at a party instead of destroying her entire world.
Mira's hands were shaking. The Guardian Mark on her spine was burning. The magic inside the city was still screaming and the seal was still broken and this man in front of her with blood on his mouth and recognition in his eyes had done this.
He had actually done this.
And the worst part was that when she looked at him, she could feel something responding inside her. Some part of her that recognized him. Some part of her that understood that his presence was the only thing keeping the wild magic from consuming everything.
Some part of her that knew they were going to have to work together or watch the world burn.
"You broke it," she whispered. "You broke everything."
Rowan pushed himself up on his elbows. His gray eyes met hers and held them. "Yes," he said simply. "I did. And now you have to decide what you're going to do about it."