The voice inside my head lingered long after the guardian fell silent. The words repeated like echoes in a cavern, sliding through the back of my mind with cold familiarity I had no memory of earning.
Incomplete.
The ground trembled beneath us. My vision blurred. The symbols under my skin pulsed in frantic flashes. My knees buckled and the world tilted sideways.
Jack caught me before I hit the ground. His arms wrapped around my waist, warm and solid, steadying the parts of me that no longer felt like they belonged to my body.
“Lainey. Stay with me. Look at me, not at that thing.”
I tried, but the guardian’s psychic presence hovered like an unseen hand pressed against my skull. The clearing dimmed, the air thickening until it felt like I was breathing through water.
Beau spun behind u
