I couldn't stop now.
I pushed through the fear and reached for the fifth thread. Found the connection point and started dissolving it with everything I'd learned from Gia's training.
The Whisperer's attacks came harder and faster, trying to break my focus and force a mistake. Mental force slammed against my shields from every direction while I worked.
The fifth thread came loose and Andrea's consciousness cracked deeper. I felt her awareness flickering like a candle in the wind, barely holding on.
But I kept going, pulling the sixth thread, then the seventh, then the eighth, each one doing more damage than the last. Each unbinding sent fractures spreading through Andrea's mind. I was racing against time, trying to remove all the Whisperer's influence before Andrea's consciousness colla
