The white dimmed, paling to a frightened hush.
A man.
A pause so heavy it felt like a held breath.
He is… mean?
My pulse spiked.
Who, Echo?I whispered.Who do you mean?
Echo pressed close, trembling like she wanted to hide inside me.
The one who hurts you.
My breath caught.
Father.
Gideon’s face flicked to my mind, branded there.
He is.
Marr is …father,Echo said, as if testing the word.
Before I could respond, the glass between our worlds shuddered — a ripple, a bending — and a dark figure stepped into the other side of it.
Dr Marr.
He moved into the frame like he’d been waiting for a curtain to rise.
His smile spread too wide across his face, excitement stretched thin over something rotten.
“I have a surprise for you today, Echo,” he crooned, placing a hand against the warped surface — againsther.
“Finally, you will have a friend.”
His grin widened.
The white around us buckled — warped inward like the world was folding in on itself.
Pain lanced through my arms as something stabbed deep into my flesh.
A needle.
Cold.
Sharp.
And then—
A pull.
Like a vacuum.
It ripped me from the safety of Echo’s mind, tearing through the thin silver thread that held us together. I felt my own power react — a terrified animal — dragging me backward, toward the weight of my body.
Echo,I tried to cling to her, but my fingers slipped through light.
