We should not have been in the tunnels so soon after what happened. Jack should not have been walking at all. His aura was still cracked in places where the code had scraped through him. His energy pulse flickered like a candle in too much wind. But when Sophie told us something ancient had awakened with him, he insisted on coming.
He said he needed to face whatever it was before it found us first.
Now, watching him stumble for the fifth time in ten minutes, I regretted letting him push himself.
His hand slapped the wall as another spasm rippled through his ribs. His breath hitched sharply, echoing down the corridor.
Beau caught him before his knees fully buckled. “That is enough. We turn back.”
Jack shook his head, jaw tight, breath shaking. “No. I am fine.”
He was not fine. His aur
