Kaelen woke with blood on his lips.
Not from a wound. From the machine. The anchor's connection had burned something inside him. His left arm was dead again. His vision blurred.
Ethan helped him sit up. “Dad, you're bleeding.”
“I'm fine.”
“You're not fine.”
She was right. He could feel it—a crack in his consciousness. The hunger's touch. Not possession. Something worse. A splinter of shadow lodged in his mind.
The fragment spoke.
“The hunger left a fragment. Inside you. It is small. Dormant. But it will grow.”
“Can you remove it?”
“No. Only you can. By refusing to feed it. By staying human.”
“How do I stay human?”
“Love. Connection. The things the hunger cannot understand.”
Zara helped him to the house. Ethan followed.
The children—Lena and Kael—watched from the porch. Their e
