The world did not heal quietly.
Aurelia stood at the center of the scar she had left behind a vast plain where the earth had folded inward, as if remembering the shape of her fall. The sky above was no longer torn open, but it bore the faint afterimage of fractures that refused to fade entirely. Even the clouds curved strangely here, bending toward a gravity that no longer existed.
Kane watched her from a short distance away.
He had learned slowly, painfully that standing too close when she went still like this was dangerous. Not because she would hurt him, but because the world sometimes reacted before she did.
“You’re doing it again,” he said quietly.
Aurelia blinked, pulled back from wherever her mind had been.
“Doing what?”
“Listening to things that aren’t speaking out loud.”
S
