Chapter 7 · Forbidden Feast: Glitchy Evolution

"Don't you glitch out on me now, Kaelen. You hold together or I cut it off myself!"

Lyra's knee was on my chest. Her dagger was pressed right under my jaw. Cold steel, shaking a little.

My left arm wasn't an arm anymore. It was flickering. Like bad signal. Flesh, then smoke, then claws, then flesh again.

"It's not me!" I choked out. "I'm not doing it! It's chewing me from the inside!"

"Yeah? Well tell it to stop!" she hissed. Her face was too close. I could feel her breath. Hot, fast. Her hair fell around us like a curtain. "You just grew wings, you idiot. You don't get to fall apart now."

I tried to grab her wrist. My hand phased right through it. Then snapped back solid. Sparks shot up my elbow.

"Lyra, get off!" I snarled. "You're gonna get erased with me!"

"I'm not moving," she snapped right back. "You think I'm letting you die on my watch? After I just bound my soul to you? No chance."

A screech ripped through the dark behind her. Not one. Three. Four.

Scavengers. They smelled the blood. They smelled the evolution.

Lyra's head whipped around.