“Dig deep. Feel the part of yourself that is the same,” Wynter whispered beside her. “Like calls to like. Answer the call.”

Kerrigan furrowed her brow and pushed deeper in herself. She had no idea what she was doing. And frankly, she felt a little silly, standing with her hand in front of a barrier that she could walk through. But there was a smidgen of resistance right before she would push over, and she concentrated on that.

The resistance was like a jelly right before a fork pierced it—wiggly and amorphous. If she pushed, she’d cut the thing in half. But it was thin air. There wasn’t anything else to feel, except the occasional zap.

She gasped and pulled back. “It’s not there.”

Kerrigan wiped her forehead. She’d been concentrating so intensely that she’d begun to sweat and not even realized the strain.

“There you have it,” Fordham said. “Can you stop this charade?”

“You tried once,” Wynter said, ignoring her brother. “Try again. Really concentrate. I can see the break. I want you to feel it. To take it in your hand and rip it open from the inside. The spell will shatter around you.”

Kerrigan looked at her skeptically. “How do you know that?”

“I’ve been researching this wall longer than you’ve been alive,” she said calmly. Though her cool veneer was slipping as the crowd behind them whispered at Kerrigan’s failed attempt.

“Silence,” Aisling called before Wynter had to. “Give the girl another chance.”

“Go on,” Wynter said encouragingly.

Fordham shook his head. “You don’t have to do it.”

But there was a mob between them and the door. If she didn’t try again, they weren’t going to let her leave.

“I’ll try one more time,” Kerrigan said.

Fordham’s features hardened, and Wynter smiled triumphantly.

She ignored them both and held her hand back out, letting her eyes close and going to that place within herself where her magic settled. She reached into the well, and her magic answered bright and vibrant. She’d been careful not to use it here since Wynter’s proclamation in the woods. It answered her like a beacon home. Then, she put both of her hands in the empty space once more. She reached for that rip in the world that would set them all free. She breathed in sharply.

“Yes,” Wynter gasped.

She could feel it. She could feel exactly what Wynter was talking about. But it wasn’t a break from this side of the wall. It was crumbling from the outside in and not the other way around.