Chapter 27 · The One Who Stays

"Get your hands off me, Kael!"

I shoved his chest. Hard. It was like hitting a brick wall. He didn't budge an inch. Instead, his fingers clamped around my wrist, searing through my sleeve.

We were standing on the edge of the twenty-seventh rift—the big one. The air tasted like ozone and old blood.

"You're not doing this," Kael rasped. He sounded like he'd swallowed glass. He was a wreck—blood caked in his hairline, armor cracked across the ribs. That damn obedience lock on his neck was still pulsing a dying, crimson glow.

"Shut up," I snapped, wrenching my arm away. "I'm the only one who can do it. You saw what Cyrus did. If this thing opens, Glasshaven isn't just a ruin—it's a memory. I can feel the core. It's calling me."

"It's not calling you. It's eating you."

Kael stepped in. He closed the gap until I could feel the heat radiating off his chest. He smelled of smoke and that sharp, metallic scent of his own power. He didn't touch me, but the proximity felt like a physical weight, pinning me in place.

"Look at your arm," he commanded. "The Ledger is carving itself into your skin.