EMMA
My scream echoed off the reinforced walls and came back to me warped, animal, unrecognizable.
I staggered backward until my spine hit the door, palms flat against the cold metal, lungs burning as if I’d run for miles. My eyes refused to look away—even as my brain screamed that this was impossible, that this couldn’t be happening, that I had finally cracked under the weight of everything.
The room pulsed.
That was the only word for it. The air itself seemed to throb in time with the creature’s breathing, thick and electric. Every instinct in my body was on fire—terror tangled with something far more dangerous.
Recognition.
“Gabriel…” I whispered again, voice breaking.
The sound of my voice did something to him. To it.
The massive form jerked, as though struck. The growl in his
