POV: Maya

The Mother Below towered over us, impossibly tall and terrifying. Her presence filled the atrium like water filling a cup. There was no room for anything else. No room for thoughts that weren't hers, breath that she didn't allow, existence that she didn't permit.

She looked down at me first, those ancient eyes seeing everything I'd ever been and ever would be.

"Maya Rodriguez," she said, and my name sounded different in her mouth. Sacred and profane at once. "Daughter ...