The crack running across the cocoon deepened with a sharp, echoing snap. Light spilled through the fracture. Not warm light. Not natural light. Silver light, bright and cold, pouring through the splitting shell like liquid moonfire.
My breath caught.
Another crack. Then another.
The cocoon split open.
A rush of energy blasted outward as the halves pulled apart. The roots holding the structure trembled, adjusting their grip, lowering the opening toward the platform floor. Jack and Beau pulled me back in the same motion, both of them planting themselves between me and the drifting glow.
The inner chamber of the cocoon was filled with swirling silver fluid, luminescent and alive. It spilled out in thin sheets as a shape emerged through it.
A girl.
A young woman stepped from the cocoon,
