I turn away before I can fall apart.
The song gets louder.
It pulses through the floor, through my bones. I can feel it rewiring me, inch by inch. Thoughts blur. Memory frays. Time slips sideways. I forget where I am. Who I am.
Jillian.
I mouth my name. Then again. Then again.
Jillian. Jillian. Jillian.
It’s not enough.
Something’s cracking in me, and I don’t know if I’ll survive it.
And then?—
A sound.
Louder than the song.
Adetonation.
Metal screams. Doors explode off hinges. Screaming. Roaring.
And a voice—my name.
“JILLIAN!”
I sob. Not from fear.
Fromrecognition.
And then Iseehim.
Maug.
He storms into the chamber like a god of fury, fire in his eyes, blood already staining his claws. Behind him, bodies fall—infected guards torn apart like paper dolls. The spore-crystals on the walls pulse violently, reacting to him, the song stuttering.
Ciampa turns, laughing.
“You’re too late,” he says, raising his arms. “She’s already fading. She’ll never choose you over the truth.”
But Maug doesn’t even look at him.
His eyes are onme.
And for a moment… the whole world stops.
He charges the barrier.
The crystal shrieks on contact. Electricity arcs through the lattice, sparking off his flesh. He grits his teeth, claws digging in. Steam rises from his arms. I scream his name as the shock tears through him?—
Andthen?—
Blood.
It splashes against the chamber floor.
