Emily didn’t move.
Not because she couldn’t.
Because for the first time since everything began—
She wasn’t sure what would happen if she did.
The voice still echoed faintly in her mind.
On whether you survive.
Her fingers twitched slightly.
Heat pulsed under her skin—uneven, unstable.
Alive.
Watching.
Waiting.
“…It spoke to me,” she said quietly.
Kael didn’t answer immediately.
She was staring at the sky.
Or more precisely—
At the fractures that refused to close.
“Yes,” she said finally.
Emily swallowed. “That’s not normal.”
Kael let out a short, humorless breath. “Nothing here is.”
Theodore remained still.
But the shadows around him were no longer calm.
They moved in slow, deliberate currents—tightening, spreading, forming a subtle barrier around them.
Not defensive.
