The knock never came this time. The door slammed open without warning.
Alex's breath caught in his throat, his body freezing mid-motion as the door banged against the wall. Liam had been standing by the window, half-dressed, still trying to shake off the nerves from their earlier conversation. But the second Alex's mom's shadow filled the doorway, Liam moved in a blur. One second he was there, the next his body shimmered and dissolved into nothing.
Alex gasped—he couldn't stop himself. It was like watching glass turn to smoke. Liam… disappeared.
The sound of his mother's voice snapped him back.
"Why aren't you ready for school?" Her tone was sharp, almost jagged. There was no softness in it, no trace of the warmth he used to cling to when he was younger. She looked at him with those dark, hollow eyes that seemed to pull the air from the room. "I told you to wake up early today."
