Kaiden watched from his knees.
His body was still shaking from the Wrath's withdrawal, his skin hot and wrong where the splits hadn't fully closed, but his eyes were clear. Clear enough to see his mother standing between him and the three people who had just tried to kill him, and clear enough to see that the shadows pouring off her were moving with purpose.
Vespera looked at her children.
Selena had taken a half-step back. Cassian was on one knee beside Calix, one hand on his brother's shoulder, both twins staring at the woman who had birthed them with the wide, unblinking focus of animals that understood they were no longer at the top of the food chain.
Vespera's expression had not changed.
"I look at you," she said, "and I see my failure as a mother."
Her voice was quiet. It carried across the ridge without effort.
"My failures have shaped you. What stands before me are beings I can no longer recognize."
Her gaze moved across the three of them.
