[Emma's POV]
The silence that followed the ancient whisper was profound, a void where sound itself had been murdered. The relief of my return, the fragile sense of being tethered back to my own body by their combined wills, was instantly, violently annihilated.
It began as a spark. A single, searing point of white-hot agony between my shoulder blades, as if a shard of a dying star had been lodged in my spine. Then it erupted. The spark became a river of fire, branching out in an intricate, lightning-fast pattern, etching itself deep into my flesh, into my very bones. It was a pain beyond anything Damon had inflicted—a primal, cosmic branding.
I jolted upright in Jaxon’s arms with a strangled scream, my body bowing backward, my fingers clawing at the empty air.
“Emma! What’s wrong?” Jax
