She wasn’t looking up at us. She was focused on the wooden puzzle pig in her hands. Her body rocked back and forth. Her lips moved but her words were barely a whisper and were lost to my ears in the rush of the wind whipping around the house.

I crouched down to try and get in her line of view. “Frankie? Frankie, can you hear me?”

Her head snapped up too fast. Unnervingly fast. Her eyes were a bright, glowing pink that matched her hair. She was still rocking and fumbling with the puzzle pig, but her hand movements were panicked, her fingers kept slipping. Still, the words she whispered were too soft to hear. She may have been looking at me, but she was definitely not seeing me. Her gaze snapped left and right and back again.

A cold chill that had nothing to do with the frigid temperature slid down my spine. “Frankie, I can’t hear you. Speak louder so I can help you⁠—”

“Everest,” she mumbled. “Everest. Everest. Everest.”

My eyes widened. I glanced around. Her soulmate was not here. His presence was not something I ever missed. It was too dark and intense to not feel. Yet it wasn’t here. I licked my lips and spoke slowly and softly, “Everest isn’t here⁠—”

“EVEREST. EVEREST. EVEREST,” she shouted, her body trembling now. “Everest. Everest. Everest.”

“Her soul is panicked. I’ve never felt that before,” Savannah whispered as she sank to her knees beside me. She cleared her throat. “Frankie, what do you need from Everest?”

She just kept mumbling his name. Only his name, over and over and over. Her body trembled and rocked. Her fingers kept working on the puzzle on the pig, but she’d worn her skin raw and was now bleeding on the wooden object. I reached out and took the puzzle pig out of her hands—her fingers lifted to the sky above her head, instantly drawing symbols in glowing pink flames.

“Everest. Everest. Everest. Everest,” she just kept whispering.

The heart-shaped crystal of her soulmate glyph turned bright-red.

I cursed. “Something must be happening to him⁠—”

“No.” Savannah stopped me from standing, her blue gaze locked on Frankie. “This is her, Coop. I’ve never felt a soul like this . . . this panicked . . . this . . . desperate . . . this . . . broken. We have to calm her down. She’s not okay.”