'Helios found him.'
The thought hit Ezra like a jolt of lightning, and his body moved before his mind could catch up.
He ran, feet pounding against stone, lungs burning as he chased the source of the golden light cutting through the palace halls.
That beacon.
Ezra wasn't completely sure. Not yet. But Helios wouldn't use magic like that without reason. Not something so visible. So unmistakable.
So he ran.
And ran.
"It's not that far," Ezra muttered under his breath, more to steady himself than anything else.
But it wasn't close either.
Each turn stretched the distance just enough to keep panic clawing at his chest. The palace corridors blurred past him, familiar yet wrong, because every second without Lior felt unbearable.
'Please,' he thought desperately. 'Please let him be with Helios.'
The air felt different the closer he got. Warmer. Brighter.
And then Ezra realized it.
The light wasn't leading him back toward their quarters.
It was pulling him farther away.
