He blinked, and she vanished, reappearing closer to Emma. Emma swiped out with the hurlbat, but sliced through empty air as Castelain disappeared yet again. She kept popping in and out, the pattern seemingly random. Never in the same spot twice. Never for more than a split second. Jesse was getting dizzy trying to keep up with where she might land next, fearful it was a ploy to distract him from Emma.
The ripple started after her seventh jump. It was small and barely noticeable, but when she appeared for the eighth time near the shattered doorway, Jesse felt it again. A wave of raw power, still slight but growing. On the ninth teleport, it barreled a path through his gut, tearing into his cells with a primal force he now recognized.
She was trying to break down the dimensional walls arou
