Kaelen knelt over me, his face a mask of furious concentration. His hands, usually so steady in battle, hovered over my throat, terrified to touch the jagged fissure where the star-metal met flesh.
"It’s not clotting," Kaelen growled, his voice tight with a panic he refused to let fully surface. "Blood heals. This... this is just spilling."
It's energy, Kaelen, Elias chirped from his perch on a nearby rock. The Phoenix looked wretched, his feathers molting into grey ash, his fire dimming to the color of a bruised plum.Thevessel integrity is compromised. She is venting surplus divinity. If she doesn't seal it, she will lose it all.
"Stop talking like she's a machine, Bird," Thane rumbled. The Bear Prince was kneeling at my feet, his massive hand encompassing my entire leg, grounding me. His touch was heavy, reassuringly solid in a world that felt like it was dissolving. "Aria. Look at me."
I forced my eyes open. They felt gritty, like I’d been sleeping in a sandstorm. Thane’s face swam into focus, pixelated at the edges before snapping sharp.
"I'm here," I touched the bond, but it felt slippery, greased with exhaustion. "I'm... still solid."
Barely,Flynn whined.
The Wolf Prince was pacing in a tight, frantic circle around us. His claws clicked a nervous rhythm on the glass,click-click-click click-click-click,too fast. Way too fast. He stopped for a second, looking at me with wide, amber eyes that seemed to be vibrating in their sockets.
You smell like a star dying,Flynn projected, the thought sharp and acidic.Smell like ozone and leaving. Don't leave.
"I'm not going anywhere," I promised, pushing myself up to my elbows.
The world tilted violently to the left. A wave of nausea hit me, tasting of copper. I hissed, my hand flying to my neck.
My fingers came away wet. I looked at them.
It wasn't red. It was gold. Even though I knew what they had said it still surprised me to see it. Liquid light, thick as mercury, shimmering with an internal luminescence that cast eerie shadows on the black rock. It was beautiful and terrifying. It didn't drip; it floated slightly before dissolving into the grey air.
"Dammit," I breathed.
"Don't move," Kaelen ordered, pressing a strip of cloth from his own torn shirt against the wound. His skin was fever-hot against mine, a stark contrast to the ambient chill of the Underworld. "You tore the seal. When you became the bridge... you stretched too far."
"We had to cross," I said, wincing as he applied pressure. The contact sent sparks dancing across my vision. "Whatever. It's done. Help me up."
"You need to rest," Thane argued, his voice deep with worry.
"We rest, we die," I countered, looking past them to the horizon. The landscape ahead was a nightmare geometry of basalt pillars and shifting grey fog. "Thane, you said it yourself. The gravity here... if we stop moving, we sink. And look at Flynn."
We all looked.
The Wolf wasn't just pacing. He wasstuttering.
Flynn trotted three steps to the right, and then, without turning, he was suddenly three steps to the left. He wasn't teleporting. He was just jumping backward without actually moving. Just for a split second, his hind legs seemed to dissolve into static, turning transparent, revealing the grey rocks behind him, before snapping back into solidity.
What?Flynn asked, freezing. He looked at his own paw. It flickered, the edges blurring like parchment.Why is my paw buzzing?
He's destabilizing,Elias whispered, hopping down to inspect Flynn, keeping a safe distance from the snapping jaws.Kinetic dissonance. He is the aspect of Motion. But there is no time here. Motion requires time.
"English, Elias," Kaelen snapped, keeping one hand firmly on the glow-stick wound in my neck.
"He is moving faster than the reality can understand him," Elias clarified, his voice grim. "If he stops moving, he might fall out of the equation entirely."
Flynn let out a high, terrified yelp. He started spinning in circles, chasing his own tail, as if proving he still existed by generating centrifugal force.
I'm real! I'm real! Keep moving!
"We have to go," I said, grabbing Kaelen’s wrist and pulling his hand away from my neck. The cloth was soaked in gold, but the flow had slowed to a sluggish ooze. "If we stay here, we lose him."
Kaelen looked at the cloth, then at me. His jaw worked, a muscle feathering in his cheek. He hated this. He hated that he couldn't burn this problem away. He hated that I was the one paying the toll.
"If you fall," Kaelen said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, low register, "I will carry you. I don't care about your pride, Aria. You fall, you go over my shoulder."
