Chapter 12 · Loopbound - Chapter 12: The Return Signal

The face in the circle isn't a projection. It's solid. Three-dimensional. Mom's eyes—green, sharp, exactly the way Callum remembers from the one photo Dad kept—lock onto his.

"Callum."

Her voice punches through the air like glass breaking.

Evan stumbles back from the circle, chalk dust still on his fingers. "What—who the hell is that?"

Callum can't move. Can't breathe. The summoning circle is glowing white-hot now, lines crackling, and Mom's face is pushing through like she's pressed against a membrane from the other side. Her mouth moves again but no sound comes out. Just her eyes. Locked on him.

Vera's hand clamps down on his shoulder. "Callum. Listen to me."

He shakes her off. "That's her. That's my mom."

"I know." Vera's voice is hard. Controlled. "And if Evan doesn't break the circle in the next thirty seconds, the feedback loop will fry his brainstem. You've seen it. Loop forty-one."

Callum had. Evan convulsing on the floor, blood coming out of his nose and ears, dead before the ward even collapsed. But that was when Callum didn't know what the circle was doing. Now—

"She's right there." His voice cracks. "I can pull her through."

"You'll kill him.