Kai's vision snapped back into focus.
The damp scent of the cave was gone—replaced by the burnt-metal tang of the forest air. Rashira was crouched beside him, one hand hovering over her blade, eyes flicking between him and the treeline.
"You were… gone," she said quietly. "Not moving. Not breathing. I thought—"
"I wasn't gone," Kai interrupted. "I was… somewhere else."
His hand flexed. The faint silver spiral pulsed once, then dimmed.
The energy inside him wasn't chaotic anymore—it was coiled. Waiting.
He glanced at Vael, who circled overhead, shrieking in sharp bursts.
The falcon's echo pulses told him something was moving toward them. Fast.
"We're not alone."
❖ Scene: The Marked Student
The undergrowth exploded.
A figure tumbled out—black veins crawling up their neck, spiral glowing on their forehead. A fellow trial participant, but their eyes were hollow, unfocused. The kind of void that screamed possessed.
