Nathaniel doesn’t miss a beat. Still crouched, he pops the trunk and hauls the plastic-wrapped body out. It lands with a dull thud—mercifully bloodless. The Candy Maker’s DNA is still sealed inside.
Remember how I said the cops were bound to catch these guys eventually? Yeah. Still true.
But now? I need them alive. I need them free.
Because they’re supposed to kill my ex-husband, and I’d really like to keep my newly-corporeal ass out of jail.
I shut my eyes. Focus.
Come on, Skye. Flicker. Do the thing.
But the void doesn’t come like it used to. There's no instant pull. No easy shift into the endless dark.
There’s something, though; an electric buzz at the edge of thought. A tug at the seams of reality.
And then… nothing.
I squeeze my eyes tighter. Strain. Push. Will it.
I feel like I’m on the verge of something, either vanishing or spontaneously combusting.
Neither option’s great.
“Any day now, sweetheart,” Talon drawls.
I grit my teeth. I am going to flicker. And then I’m going to stab him.
An ambulance screeches to a stop, just past the wreckage. The crushed car hides us for now, but I can hear the urgency: doorsslamming, voices shouting, boots hitting pavement. We’re out of time.
“Skye,” Cassian growls, voice razor-sharp. “Now.”
I don’t know how. I don’t even know if I can. But the static erupts beneath my skin. Reality cracks. My vision tunnels, the world warping like it’s being sucked through a pinhole.
And then—
The car crash, the sirens, the shouting medics—none of it matters anymore. We are nowhere. We are everywhere. Two medics rush past with gurneys, eyes scanning the wreckage, but they look right through us, like we’re ghosts. The bystanders who were just whispering and pointing? Nothing. Not even a flicker of recognition.
This isn’t the void. No endless silence. No pure, merciless black.
This is… limbo.
My world. The space between death and whatever waits beyond.
And for a second—just one heartbeat—it feels right. Like home. A rush of relief floods me. I didn’t know if I still could. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to touch this place again. I feel—
Then it hits me.
A tremor. Subtle, but wrong. Like a thread snapping inside a loom. The air warps. The edges of my vision shimmer like heatwaves over pavement.
You’d think being back here would feel as natural as breathing. But it doesn’t.
My power pulses, then recoils. Like it knows I don’t belong anymore. I reach for it, but it slithers just out of grasp. Trembling. Feral. Foreign.
It’s slipping. Fast.
“Um, guys…” I start, my voice tight. “We have a problem.”
I don’t know what’ll happen if I lose control completely. Maybe we’ll land back at the crash. Or on the other side of the world. Or, God help us, somewhere that isn’t even real.
