The backlash hit like a physical blow.
When I severed the tethers, the feedback wasn't just a loss of connection—it was a violent reclamation of my own energy. The glowing, jasmine-scented threads snapped back into my chest, a burning, jagged current that left me gasping. I fell to my knees, the forest floor biting into my skin, the silence that followed the severing heavy and absolute.
Seth caught me before I hit the dirt. His hands were no longer just calibrating—they were shielding. He pulled me into the small, frantic radius of his own presence, his back turned to the encroaching nightmare, his eyes scanning the horizon like a trapped animal.
"Status," Seth rasped, his voice vibrating with a lethal, crystalline intensity. He didn't look at the Weaver; he looked only at me, h
