IVA
The first crack sounded like a gunshot, and I watched Lev double over, his face contorting with pain. His bones reformed, grinding in ways they were never meant to move. His groan tore through me, raw and inhuman, and everything he had just told me came crashing back all at once.
I lost it.
Scrambling to my feet, my mind shattered, the scene in front of me unreal. It couldn’t be. I had to be still asleep. I had to be dreaming.
My heart pounded as I zeroed in on the door, and my mother’s words echoed in my head: “Lev went out of town with your father.”
Yes. That was it. He wasn’t here. He couldn’t be. Everything else had to be some twisted illusion, a nightmare my mind had conjured out of grief and shock. I took one step toward the exit, but the beast surged between me and the d
