The world shattered around me, a storm of fractured energy and writhing shadows. My hands pulsed with blue light, threads of power weaving into the Mirror, trying to hold the fragments together, trying to contain the chaos I’d helped unleash. But the shadows didn’t obey. They had their own rhythm, a dark intelligence that pulsed like a heartbeat of malice.
One of them lunged. My stomach dropped as I felt it before I even saw it. Reflexively, I twisted, dodging the strike, my palms skimming the Mirror’s surface to stabilize the pulse. Sparks of silver and black danced across the fragments, but the Mirror shuddered violently beneath my touch.
“Jax!” I shouted, my voice almost lost in the scream of the shadows.
He was there in an instant, like he had read my mind. Hands braced against mine
