Elena POV
The moment I reached for Adrian fully, the world split open.
Actually, the psychic field ruptured around us with a violent scream, the blind zone convulsed like a living thing stabbed through the spine. The walls of the chamber fractured into shifting geometric shards, corridors bending impossibly as alarms erupted throughout the structure.
Tiffany staggered backward.
"No—"
I felt Adrian instantly. He was no longer weak or the broken echo from before.
He was all power and raw, and his connection slammed into me so hard that my knees nearly buckled. Pain flooded through the bond first. It had been weeks of restraint, psychic torture, invasive manipulation, exhaustion so deep it had settled into his bones.
I felt it all, and then came something hotter. Relief.
"Elena," his voice echoed inside my head, rough and disbelieving.
"I'm here."
The words steadied him instantly.
