Chapter 30 · Soul Sync

"Stop fighting it, or we both fry," Evelyn hissed, her fingers digging into my shoulders.

I didn't answer. I couldn't. My jaw was locked, and my vision was splitting into a thousand jagged shards. The Forbidden Card wasn't just a power-up; it was a parasite, and right now, it was trying to bridge the gap between my shredded soul and hers. It felt like someone was pouring molten lead down my spine.

"I'm not... fighting it," I managed to choke out, though my muscles were twitching in a rhythmic, violent spasm. "It's just... too much."

"Then give it to me," she commanded. Her voice sounded different—not just in my ears, but inside my head. Echoing. "Let go of the ledge, Kane. If you keep trying to wall me out, the feedback loop will snap us both in half."

I tried to pull back, to keep the last few bastions of my privacy intact. I’d spent years as a hunter; I knew how to lock a door. But Evelyn wasn't knocking. She was kicking the door off the hinges.

Suddenly, the world tilted. The gray walls of the safehouse vanished, replaced by a suffocating, colorless void.