While Lyra knelt beside the crystal, shaking, Maeve forced herself to step forward. Her hands trembled but she managed to clean her eyes with her sleeve, and looked at the blue shell encasing her brother.
She pressed her palm flat against the surface.
"It's warm," she said, her voice thin but steady. "There's a faint pulse. This is not just a shell. It's... keeping him alive. Like a life-support system. His heart is still beating inside."
Emric was already moving. He grabbed the heavy wooden desk and placed it in front of the destroyed doorway. Renna dragged the bookshelf over to block the window. Together they piled furniture, torn bedframe pieces, anything they could find, creating a barricade that would at least slow someone down.
"Nobody gets into this room," Emric said. His voice had lost all its usual academic calm. This was something rawer.
"Nobody."
Renna notched an arrow and stood at the gap in the barricade, her eyes red but her hands steady.
