Rissa’s POV

The world goes silent the second the power answers.

Not quiet.

Silent.

Like the basin itself stops breathing.

My hands stay pressed against the ground as energy surges beneath the stone, violent and ancient and awake in ways I do not fully understand. The silver cracks spreading through the earth blaze brighter, then suddenly stop moving.

Everything freezes.

The Hunters.

The collapsing ground.

Even Teresa.

For one impossible second, the entire basin holds still around me.

Then ...