Page 133 of Griffin Food

I break for all of us.

I just want him to pull the fuck through.

And then he settles.

The quietness is profound.

Master Pugstone is standing close by, a book clasped to his chest. Violet, kneeling to Rafe’s right, rocks back on her heels and bursts into tears.

I gather her close, holding her as she babbles and weeps and babbles some more. Swinging her up into my arms, I carry her to the nearby couch and sit.

Her small fist grips the collar of my shirt with surprising fierceness, still babbling urgent words. “Sundial Chamber… We have to try!”

Sundial Chamber? I try to soothe her. To hold her closer that I might take this burden of pain from her. She’s trembling uncontrollably in my arms—exhausted. We’re all fucking exhausted.

I wish Lark were here so he might fucking purr for her.

“Atlas, we have to try!”

“Try what, love?” I would try anything at this point.

Aware of close presence, I lift my head. Master Pugstone, Master Lychen, and his two nervous assistants have gathered around where we sit.

My gaze shifts to the cot on the floor, where Rafe might be sleeping at peace were it not for the distended nature of his skin with broken bones and the bruises blooming across his body.

I swallow down the bile.

“Is he stable?”

“Yes, for now,” Master Lychen says.

“How many times has it been?”

“That was his twelfth transition,” Master Lychen says gravely.

I nod.

“We have to try,” Violet begs again.

“If I might explain,” Master Pugstone says gently.

“Please do,” I say.

Master Lychen motions to his assistants. They rush to collect a small occasional table and put it directly in front of me. Master Pugstone places the book on top of it and opens it to a picture of the Sundial Chamber, this time minus the intimate scene.

“The Sundial Chamber,” I say unnecessarily.

“The Sundial Doctrine of Threshold Transformations,” Master Pugstone says. “Thomas and Lunde found it in one of the storerooms off the library. Forgotten, it would seem. They were searching for something—anything—that might offer insight into Rafe's rapid transition. But perhaps we were looking in the wrong place. It was Violet who found it and made the connection.”

My brows pull together.

“Rafe lingers in a perilous state. What happened between Violet, Darrion, and Fenix proved that the resonance works for you. It may also have been the trigger for Rafe's transition. But it is incomplete. And an incomplete resonance is unstable.”

“Resonance? Why does that word seem familiar?”

“The Sundial Chamber is a conduit—an amplifier to what you experienced before. A gateway to a higher plane of connection. True resonance. I believe you are part of something extraordinary.”

The hairs on the back of my neck rise to attention.