The blue panels faded into the periphery. The ambient fire in the room died. The tiny apartment fell into a stunned, ringing silence.
The new summon stood perfectly still in the center of the living room. Her golden eyes slowly swept across the assembled group with the calm, terrifyingly cold gaze of a veteran commander taking stock of a battlefield.
She looked at Garrett, who was gripping Volcan like a lifeline. She looked at Dillon, whose jaw was still unhinged, and Elise, whose defensive barrier was slowly powering down. She looked at Lucy, who was staring with wide, star-struck eyes from the mattress, her forgotten drawing of dragons crumpled in her small hands.
She looked at Mirko, who stood tall with her sword drawn, her pink eyes wide with a cocktail of profound shock and immediate, territorial pride.
She looked at Kuro, silent and analytical in the shadows, their eyes meeting in a quiet, mutual acknowledgment of lethality.
And finally, she looked at Nathan.
