The being stepped from the rift, its body stitched from memory and shadow.
It wore my face.
But wrong.
Too still. Too perfect. Like a photograph rotting under glass. Its eyes shimmered like liquid moonlight—silver leaking from sockets, tears that never fell.
It smiled.
“Hello, Quinn.”
Rowan clutched my side. “Papa… that’s not you, right?”
“No,” I whispered, heart thundering. “It’s not.”
The creature tilted its head, imitating me. “Are you sure?”
Jace moved between us, chest heaving, blood slick on his shoulder from Garrick’s earlier blade. “Get behind me.”
The shade laughed.
“You never could protect him, Alpha. Not from what he truly is.”
Kairis stumbled to her feet, her runes flickering like dying stars. “That’s not a specter. It’s a resonance echo—a soul-shaped wound made fle
