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Juno hadn't lowered her rifle.
The space where the entity had been still pulsed—not visibly, but Kaden could feel it, a lingering disturbance in the air, like the aftershock of something breaking. His skin prickled, his muscles tense as though bracing for another unseen force to push against him.
Juno took a slow step forward, her fingers white around the grip of her weapon.
"Kaden," she said, voice carefully even, "I need you to tell me what just happened."
He opened his mouth, but the words refused to form. How could he explain something he didn't understand?
His heart pounded in his chest, too fast, too loud. It didn't feel like fear—not exactly. It felt like something else, something more visceral. Like his body wasn't just reacting. It was changing.
Juno's eyes flicked downward.
His hands.
Kaden looked down and nearly staggered back.
His fingers were blurring.
Not disappearing, not fading—but shifting, out of sync with reality.
For a heartbeat, it was as if he existed in two places at once.
The ground beneath him warped in response—just a ripple, just for a second, but enough that Juno noticed.
She took another step back.
"Kaden," she said again, tighter this time.
"I don't—I didn't mean to," he rasped.
His breath came too fast. He clenched his fists, forcing his fingers still. Slowly, the distortion in his skin faded, his body anchoring itself back into a single form.
But the air still hummed around him.
Juno's stare was unreadable.
And that was the worst part.
Kaden could handle fear. Distrust. Even hatred.
But this?
This calculating silence?
It made his stomach twist.
"We need to go," Juno said at last, turning away, but there was something different in her posture now—tighter, more controlled.
She didn't trust him.
Not anymore.
Kaden swallowed hard and followed.
The two of them walked in tense silence, weaving through the ruins, leaving the fractured space behind.
But Kaden couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching them.
And when he glanced back over his shoulder—just for a second—he swore he saw the faintest outline of something else standing where the entity had disappeared.
Something even less human.
Something waiting.