For a long moment, no one spoke.
The vision still flickered behind my eyelids, bright and terrible, the image of the woman who looked exactly like me burned into my mind. I felt phantom heat on my skin. Felt her breath. Her fear. Her power. It lingered like a second heartbeat pounding beneath my own.
Nathan kept his arms around me, grounding me with the weight and warmth of his presence. His chest rose sharply against my back. He was breathing fast. Too fast.
“Margot,” he whispered. “Talk to me. What did you see.”
I swallowed hard, trying to piece words together. The monolith’s glow dimmed slowly behind us, cooling like dying embers. The guardians were still silent, but they no longer felt entirely dormant. Their silence felt expectant.
“I saw her,” I said quietly. “The first Marked.”
