His lip curls. “Destroy it.”
I nod fast and close my fist, crushing the light; it fractures into dust, dissolving instantly into the canyon wind. Gone.
“Whoa,” River breathes. “You’re amazing…”
Heat rushes to my cheeks. I look away, trying not to dwell on the affection threaded through his voice—on feelings I don’t yet know how to hold.
“He’s right,” Ryder says quietly. “You are.”
The words land heavier than they should.
For a fleeting second, his eyes widen—as if he’s seeing something else, somewhere else—then they settle back on me, dark, intent, and full of things neither of us are ready to say.
There’s one more thing I need to do before we continue.
The air splits when I open the portal.
It doesn’t tear so much aspeel, reality curling back on itself like burned paper. Astra Nova’s entrance looms over us, a cold, quiet air humming in the space around us. For a moment, the boys look at me, confused, before the slow realisation ebbs on their faces. Ryder’s first, then Rivers. The remainder of the mountain that had been hovering over us, a distant but heavy reminder of the General’s experimentation.
I swallow and hold the opening steady with shaking hands.
“Now,” I whisper. “Come on.”
Nothing happens.
The portal breathes. Slow. Patient.
For one foolish heartbeat, I think maybe it’s not here. Maybe it’s finally succumbed to the darkness in Astra Nova. Then the shadows inside the portalmove.
I step back instinctively as something crawls out, making my skin crawl with it.
It’s too tall. Too thin. Too wrong, but somehow exactly how I remember it, as if forged from my nightmares themselves. Its limbs bend the wrong way, joints clicking as it pulls itself free of the tear in the air. Its skin is stretched tight and blackened, like it’s been scorched from the inside. Where its face should be, there’s only a warped suggestion of one, eye’s glowing a dim red, and a furious, mouth split too wide.
My heart slams against my ribs.
Behind me, I hear a sharp intake of breath.
“Gods,” River mutters.
The creature lunges.
I barely have time to react before it’s on me, claws slashing toward my face. I throw my hands up on instinct, and the power answers—raw and immediate. The air locks, freezing the creature mid-strike, its claws hovering an inch from my throat, trembling violently.
Its scream tears out of it, distorted and animal.
Sweat breaks along my spine. Holding it still feels like gripping a storm, but the power… my power is the hurricane that eats the storm.
The moment my hand touches its chest, the violence drains out of it, reshaping into something warmer, steadier. It flows through my fingers like breath after drowning. I press my palm flat and let it move where it wants.
The creature convulses.
Cracks spiderweb across its dark skin, light leaking through the fractures. And soon, the screaming cuts off, replaced by a raw, broken gasp. Its body begins tofoldin on itself, bonesshifting, claws retracting, the monstrous shape collapsing like a nightmare losing its grip.
I don’t pull away.
I hold on.
The light flares—and then there’s a body in my arms.
