Then everything stops at once.
Bob freezes as Mouse bristles, ears flat.
Patricia’s notebook goes dark.
Walter appears again, pulsing frantically.
Carl launches himself sideways like he’s dodging something I can’t see.
I scan the trees.
It’s just a forest, but it feels wrong. There’s no birds chirping, not even rustling leaves. Even the wind stops.
“Something’s not right,” I whisper.
I hear footsteps behind me. Kieran.
His hand touches my shoulder—
And then everything detonates.
The creature explodes from the treeline.
Massive, with mangy fur matted with something dark. Bone spikes jut from its spine at wrong angles. Its limbs bend in ways that shouldn’t work. Eyes too intelligent. Too aware.
An evolved version of the beasts that attacked us the first time we entered Absentia.
Twisted. Corrupted. Wrong.
It charges straight at me.
Before I can blink, Kieran throws himself in front of me.
The creature slams into him with the force of a battering ram. I hear the impact—bone against muscle, air punching from his lungs—and then he’s airborne, crashing into a tree with a sickening crack.
He crumples to the ground.
“Kieran!” I scream.
Finn’s chaos magic explodes outward—wild, arcing through the air like lightning with nowhere to ground. Torric’s flames erupt beside him, heat washing over the clearing in visible waves.
Mouse launches toward the creature, a streak of violet fury.
Bob doubles in size, edges sharp as broken glass.
Patricia’s notebook blazes so bright it hurts to look at.
And Darian—somewhere behind us, bound and guarded—flinches. I feel it through the bond. Like he took the blow himself.
My shadows go feral.
The ground shudders beneath my feet. My wings burst free as darkness pours from my hands, wild and uncontrolled, rage and fear igniting magic I can’t contain.
Blood streaks down Kieran’s temple. He’s breathing—harsh, shallow—but his eyes won’t focus.
He’s down. Not dead. But not fighting.
The creature turns back toward me.
