No better than the monster before her.
Powerless.
—
Powerless?The thought struck deep.Are you sure?
The words didn’t come from outside. They came from beneath her skin. A flicker. Then, a burn. Heat stirred in her core, old beyond memory. It wasn’t rage, not exactly, but something else from beyond the furthest stars. Hungrier. The fire she’d buried lifetimes ago uncoiled like a waking beast, stretching its limbs along her bones. It raked at her, prowling through her veins, demanding to be set loose.
She staggered.
It had been locked down for centuries, chained behind will and duty. The Weaving demanded it. If she let go, now…would it ever stop burning, devouring?
“Let it out.” The voice rang in her ear, not spoken, but sung.
Rynna turned, eyes wide as the Great Phoenix hovered just behind her, wings spread in silent stillness.
“I can bind it again.” Its gaze pinned her in place. “But only you can destroy it.”
The words struck her like a physical blow. She could feel the fire rising higher, eager to be released.
“I can't.” Her pulse thundered as the threads of the Weaving constricted around her.
Her limbs stiffened, spine locking, every nerve screaming for motion, for release. Fists clenching, her muscles flexed with strain, but the resistance only deepened.
The Weaving would let the Wraith devour this world before it let her tap that power. And it was right to cage her. She remembered what she was capable of when she let go.The ruins she had left behind in other worlds, the cratered cities, the ash of choices she couldn’t take back—they still clung to her.
A flicker of movement pulled her attention.
Fenn.
His body stirred, sending her heart leaping, and she stepped forward, hand reaching—
“He’s not him anymore.” Kaelith’s arm snapped over her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.
She shook her head, not willing to believe it. “What are you talking about?”
But then she saw it. The silver in Fenn’s eyes had dulled, fading to a tarnished gray, then black, snuffed out and replaced by a slick, void-dark sheen. His gaze met hers, and there was only Hunger. Anything left of the man had been completely subsumed, forced to watch the monster within use the body how it pleased.
His fangs broke past his lips. Talons curved from his fingertips.
“No!” The word tore through her, and she reached for the fire.
But the Weaving struck back. Her entire body convulsed, folding in on itself as pain erupted from her soul, raking through the ties that held her to this world. Then the air warped around her, and the wind screamed, swirling in tight, invisible spirals. The ground under her feet suddenly felt less real as the borders of the world started to fray, pulling her toward someplace else.
Leave willingly, and the wolf will pass death’s gate, released from the infection’s grip,it whispered.Leave willingly, and you will keep your memories. One world is not worth unleashing your full self.
The Weaving didn’t care that there were still people here whom she loved. There would be no second chances. No return. No way to give Kaelith back all the years they’d lost. And her friends would die.
But Fenn would be free. Tears slid down her cheeks.And I won’t lose them.
Kaelith had already moved, stepping between the creature wearing Fenn’s face and the rest of Fang Unit. Their bodies lay scattered across the stone, unmoving. Whatever strength they had left was bleeding out, pulled string by string into the Wraith.
Rynna fought to remain standing as the storm churned around her.
“You can resist the vortex,” Hika’s voice sang in her ear. “You can save my world from being devoured by this Outsider.”
“It’s too dangerous.” Rynna’s focus remained on the tangle of bodies ahead. “I will destroy this world just as the Wraith would. And even if I could control it,myworld stillends. Fenn and Kaelith…” She shook her head. “I will just be taken and erased all over again.”
