It actually works.
Nathaniel comes into my vision behind him. Moments later, I see Talon right next to the two of them.
“What was that?” Talon asks, his voice low.
“She’s having trouble staying tethered,” Cassian says. “Same as before.”
“Same as before…?” I echo, totally lost.
Cassian’s eyes catch mine. “Remember the glitches? When you phased in and out?”
I nod slowly.
“Yeah. That didn’t stop. It’s still happening.”
Talon narrows his eyes at me. “It looked different this time.”
“No, no, no,” I say quickly, forcing the wobble out of my voice. “This wasn’t like before. It wasn’t that... spectral kind of slipping. Back then, I could feel the void. I still felt like me. This time, it felt like…” I pause, searching. “Like I was torn up. Split apart.”
Nathaniel frowns. “Well, you have a body now.” He shrugs. “It’s bound to feel different.”
That’s… fuck. That actually makes sense.
So what, now I can vanish into the void and snap back, only this time, it’s dragging my real, breathing body along for the ride?
“Shit,” I mutter, shaking out my hands like I can reboot myself by force. “Guess the surprises just keep rolling in.”
Talon tilts his head. “Yeah. Apparently you’re half-dead, half-alive now. Or something.”
“Apparently,” Cassian grumbles, pushing to his feet. He throws me a look I can’t quite decode—something tight and unreadable, somewhere betweenI might murder youand... whatever that was earlier when he talked me down.
Of all people, it had to be Cassian pulling me out of an interdimensional meltdown. The irony is nauseating.
We’re supposed to be enemies, him and me. He’s always been the last one I’d count on—the brooding buzzkill with zero people skills and a disturbing habit of jerking off to me in his cozy little psych ward.
Sure, I saved him. Broke a few cosmic laws to bring his brooding ass back. But still.
It’s Cassian. He’s not supposed to care about me. And I’m definitely not supposed to care about him.
Unless the world is on fire.
Which, fair enough, it kind of is.
“As much as I’d love to unpack all of this,” Nathaniel cuts in, his voice quiet but urgent, “we really don’t have time. We need to move. Now.”
“Okay, let me repeat the question,” I snap, hands flailing. “How?! We are literally about to be ID’d on a million cameras. This is my neighborhood. People knew me here. I’ll be recognized in a second.”
The sirens are getting louder. People are definitely staring. And there’s still a corpse in the trunk.
Cassian catches my eye. His jaw tightens. His muscles flex. He crouches back down in front of me, and without warning—
He grabs my face.
Like, palms-on-cheeksgrabs.
And somehow, in the middle of all this chaos, the panic boiling in my chest... starts to ebb.
“You saved my life,” he says, voice rough and quiet. “You’re gonna do it again. But first, put on the damn jacket.”
