WITNESS.
Vasquez’s scream didn’t fade—it fractured.
It splintered into sharp, panicked breaths as she tore herself out of Marcus’s reach and scrambled backward across the polished floor. Her gaze locked onto the writhing smoke inside Sage’s ward, horror so absolute it bordered on feral.
“It’s out,” she choked. “It’s out—no, no, no—don’t let it near me—”
“It can’t touch you,” Sera said immediately, stepping between Vasquez and the containment field. Her voice cut clean and steady through the chaos. “It’s separated. Trapped. You are not in danger.”
“You don’t know that.” Vasquez’s hands clawed at the air as if she still felt something clinging to her skin. “It was always there. Even when it was quiet, it was there. Watching. Waiting. I could feel it pressing against my thoughts, steerin
