Chapter 27 · The Key Still Breathing

Marcus's palm was splitting open.

Not a cut. Not a wound he could wrap or ignore. The mark burned from the inside out, like someone had shoved a hot wire through the center of his hand and was slowly twisting. He could feel each layer peeling back. Skin first. Then the muscle underneath. The pain came in waves that made his vision white out at the edges.

Cassian stood three feet away, holding the First Note between two fingers. The shard pulsed with a low hum that made Marcus's teeth ache.

"You feel that?" Cassian's voice was almost friendly. "That's the resonance trying to rip itself out of you. It wants to go home."

Marcus kept his breathing steady. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. His hand felt like it was full of broken glass, but he didn't look down. Looking down would make it real in a way he couldn't afford right now.

"You could let go," Cassian said. He tilted his head, studying Marcus the way someone might study a bug under glass. "Just stop fighting it. You'd slip right out of this world. Wake up in the next one, clean slate, no pain.