Amelia didn't just drop what she was holding, her entire world seemed to fall with it. The clipboard slipped from her fingers and clattered against the hotel's polished marble floor, papers scattering like panicked birds. Her knees buckled, hitting the ground hard enough to sting, but she barely felt it. Her trembling hands shot forward, gripping her son's smaller ones as though he were the last tether to reality. Her heart was pounding wildly, hammering against her ribs so violently she swore everyone in the lobby could hear it.
"What do you mean missing?" Her voice cracked halfway through the sentence, sharp with fear and disbelief. Her wide eyes darted from Luther to Adin, searching desperately for an answer that made sense, for a hint that this was all just a sick joke. "What happened? Weren't you supposed to stay in the room?" Panic was eating at her throat, making it hard to breathe, but her words tumbled out anyway, sharp, frantic, desperate. "How did Ariel disappear?"
