REN pov-
For a heartbeat, I thought my eyes were glitching.
One second, I was reaching toward Lian Zhen...finally, finally able to feel the phantom outline of his wrist beneath my fingertips...and the next, something moved behind him. Not a shadow. Not a trick of light. Something wrong, tall and bent like it was built from whispered nightmares and broken joints.
My vision blurred at the edges, but my instincts didn't. They screamed.
I didn't think. I lunged.
My arms wrapped around Lian Zhen's torso...warm, solid, real. The first time I'd ever touched him. The first time I could.
His breath hitched sharply against my ear.
But I didn't loosen my grip.
I couldn't.
Because the thing behind him… it wasn't disappearing.
It was looking at me.
A shiver slid down my spine, cold as night rain.
And then...it smiled. Too wide. Too many teeth. Too curious.
My hands tightened in Lian Zhen's clothes.
"Don't turn around," I whispered, my voice cracking like thin ice. "Just...stay still."
LIAN ZHEN pov-
His warmth stunned me.
Ren's arms.... small, trembling, impossibly brave...were locked around me with a desperation that tasted like fear.
No… not fear of me. Fear of what stood behind.
And I knew.
I didn't need to turn. The air behind my spine had shifted, dense and ancient, humming with a presence that had no business being awake.
Ren pressed his forehead into my shoulder, breath quivering.
He shouldn't be able to touch me yet.
He shouldn't be able to reach into my realm.
He shouldn't be able to feel the pulse at the base of my throat.
But something had changed.
Weeks of feeding him, watching him, guarding him… his body had grown accustomed to my energy. His birthmark...a once-muted curl of ink...now carried a quiet glow, delicate strokes becoming intricate, elegant, almost divine. It wasn't just changing.
It was awakening.
And the creature behind us...
It recognized it.
I slid my hand to the back of Ren's head, steadying him gently.
"Little one," I murmured, lowering my voice to a vibration only he could hear, "tell me what you see."
He swallowed, shaking harder.
"It's standing right behind you," Ren whispered, fingers curling into the fabric of my shirt. "It's tall and... and its legs bend the wrong way. Its eyes are like… like they're carved out. And it keeps staring at me. Zhen… why is it staring at me?"
Because it knows who you are.
Because your blood sings louder every day.
Because you're not supposed to be in this world without me.
But I didn't tell him that.
Not yet.
Not while his heart was pounding like a frantic bird trapped in his chest.
"Don't let go of me, Ren," I said, voice low, steady, a shield made of sound.
"I'm not," he breathed. "I won't."
His arms tightened even more.
He held onto me like I was the only thing keeping him on the right side of sanity.
He wasn't wrong.
The air behind me sharpened...
a talon scraping the floor,
a breath dragging through a throat not built for breathing,
a whisper not meant for human ears...
"ᴏʜ… ʜᴇ sᴇᴇꜱ ɴᴏᴡ…"
Ren flinched violently.
And that was when I moved.
My body turned sharply... hielding him, caging him against my chest, hiding his face from the creature's gaze. His fists knotted in my shirt, breath stuttering, his trembling sinking into me like I was his anchor.
But the creature didn't step back.
It leaned forward.
Closer.
Closer.
Right to the edge of my reach.
Then...
It lifted its head.
And in a voice that scraped like broken porcelain dragged over stone, it crooned:
"ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴍᴀʀᴋ… ʜᴀꜱ ᴍᴀᴛᴜʀᴇᴅ."
Ren froze.
My pulse thundered.
The creature smiled again.
And then...slowly...lifted one skeletal finger…
…right toward Ren.
END OF THE CHAPTER.