★Nuel's POV★
I fell to the floor the moment a piece of wood landed on my head, the blow so heavy that it shattered the last thread of normal thinking I had been clinging to. My vision blurred instantly, my knees buckling as I collapsed through the doorway I had been about to leave through moments earlier. The world tilted violently, and if not for Laila's presence—her small frame trembling on the other side of the room—I might have believed I was imagining everything.
"I told you we needed to use the entire Lord for the ritual!" the first woman barked, her voice sharp enough to slice through my spinning thoughts. "I told you there was no use keeping any fragments of the baou back behind!"
Her words rang like metal striking metal. Laila flinched, her voice weak—too weak—against the fury in the other woman's tone.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this…" Laila whispered, her eyes glued to me, guilt and fear swimming in them as the other woman glared.
