Twice Marked,Twice Loved
Autumn held him through it all, screaming his name as his claws retracted, his eyes returned to their deep, familiar gray.
The void vanished.
Gale went limp.
“Gale!” Autumn sobbed, cradling him. “No—no, please—”
His chest did not rise.
The bond went terrifyingly, unbearably silent.
Around them, the ground cracked.
A new presence stirred beneath the ruins—older than the hive, older than the moon.
The entity had not died.
It had shed its skin.
And something far worse was waking up.
Far below, in the darkness left behind, a voice echoed—slow, amused, eternal.
Sikat na Kabanata