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Gone again.

I didn’t know how long we’d been sitting here. Twenty minutes. An hour. Time had stopped meaning anything the moment Guild brought her home.

People moved around us.

Vivienne. The doctor. London. Men I didn’t know. Men I did.

Alaric.

Always Alaric.

I felt him every time he looked through the doorway. Checking. Watching. Waiting. Bethany didn’t seem to notice any of them. Only me.

“Nyssa.”

“I know, B.” My throat tightened. “I’m right here.”

Her fingers moved inside mine. Barely. Then stopped. I looked at her face. Really looked. No blood. No terrible wounds. Nothing that explained why the woman sitting beside me felt so completely absent. That frightened me more.

I knew this Bethany. I’d seen her disappear before. Months ago. Upstairs. Back against the wall. Everyone else had been panicking around us and she’d been simply… gone. I remembered lowering myself beside her.

B?

Nothing.

It’s me.

Nothing.

Let me in.

I swallowed. Maybe some doors only opened the same way twice?

“B?”

Her eyes moved. Found mine.

“It’s me.”

A breath.

Small.

Shallow.

I shifted closer. “Let me in.”

Something flickered.

There.

Then gone.

But I’d seen it.

I turned toward the doorway. Alaric stood there. Of course he did. His gaze found mine. I looked toward Bethany, then back at him.

“Can you give us a minute?”