The Reaper descended in silence, an immense skeletal silhouette wreathed in tendrils of Drag-light. Its elongated limbs scraped the sides of the plaza’s buildings, each motion slow but deliberate, as though it had no need to hurry.
Kade’s breath caught in his throat. He had felt fear before—running from hunters, fighting Drag-born—but this was different.
This thing wasn’t hunting him.
It was claiming him.
Asha staggered back, her Koua shivering violently. “Kade… it’s not even looking at me.”
“That’s because it’s here for me,” he muttered, his voice sounding far away even to his own ears.
The mechanized voice boomed again, vibrating through his bones:
> “PRIMARY HOST CONFIRMED. PROTOCOL: ABSORPTION.”
Kade’s echoes writhed, hissing frantically in his mind.
> “We can’t fight it
