The medical wing was quiet, with a faint hum of stabilizers and the sterile odor of alchemical salves. Astana stood beside the bed, his gaze fixed on the unconscious form of Lalisa Arquette. Her skin, still faintly glowing from residual ether, revealed just how close they had come to disaster.
Ether overload. Violent. Unstable. And without explanation.
She had collapsed in the ballroom, and within seconds, the energy spiraling out of her had become enough to cause mass detonation. Had Gabriel von Jaunez and Prince Christian not intervened, the explosion would have been inevitable. Then came Damian, who absorbed the rest into his own core, burning out the last of the unstable ether before the room was torn apart.