The earth did not simply tremble beneath our feet. The earth breathed. The fissures glowed brighter with every pulse that rippled through the cracked valley floor, and the shape beneath those glowing veins shifted like a creature struggling to wake after a thousand years of sleep. The silver veins brightened with violent rhythm, casting long fractured shadows across the shattered ground.
Talon pushed me backward with protective force while keeping his body angled between me and the largest fissure. His eyes narrowed as the massive shadow below stretched slowly, as if testing old limbs that had forgotten how to move. The ground beneath us slanted slightly as the shape pushed upward, distorting the earth from within with unsettling pressure. Jace grabbed a handful of snow and rubbed it betw
