The moment my hand started reaching back toward the creature, Kael looked at me like he was watching the end of the world happen all over again.
I did not move intentionally. That was what terrified me most. The force inside me reacted before thought could follow, drawn toward the massive clawed hand stretching upward through the broken seal beneath us.
Ancient darkness poured from the creature’s body like smoke as the fractured world around us trembled violently beneath its presence. And my body responded to it instinctively.
As though some part of me had been trying to return to it for centuries. Kael grabbed my wrist hard enough to stop the movement instantly.
“No.” The word tore out of him. The contact between us sent violent energy through the fractured bond immediately. Ancient
