41
The third horn’s wail still echoed through the trees when the first window shattered. A board split clean in half, sending debris flying as Levi ducked behind an overturned table.
“They’re coming in!” he shouted. “We need to move—NOW!”
Benji yanked Sassy behind him, pressing her back to the crumbling fireplace. “Stay down. Don’t look at the door.”
But she couldn’t help it. Because the silhouette outside was unmistakable.
Broad shoulders.
Steady stance.
Head tilted, listening.
Jimmy.
Her heart buckled.
“Jimmy…” she said, hope rising like a sob.
Benji growled deep in his chest. “Stop saying his name.”
“He’s HURT,” she insisted. “Can’t you see? He’s leaning—he’s—”
“Sassy.” Benji caught her chin, forcing her eyes to his. “That is NOT the boy you knew. That’s someone wearing his voice.”
But at that moment Jimmy stepped forward into the thin beam of light. And her breath stopped. He LOOKED like Jimmy.
Bruised. Pale. Exhausted.
But Jimmy.
Except his eyes.
Jimmy’s eyes were warm, expressive, emotional.
These were flat.
Still.
Cultic.
Devotional.
Benji saw it instantly. “Jesus Christ…”
Sassy felt herself sway, knees weakening.
He’s alive. He’s alive. He’s alive.
But not the same.
Not pulled.
Not coerced.
Aligned.
Another window burst open behind them. Colton and Levi fired warning shots, shouting over the chaos.
Wren screamed, “They’re flanking the east wall!”
Benji threw his body in front of Sassy as debris rained down. The lodge was collapsing in on itself.
“Sassy…”
Jimmy’s voice filled the room. Not shouted, but whispered gently through the cracks in the boards, through the broken panes, through the breath between heartbeats.
“Sassy, come outside.”
A command wrapped in comfort. A lure carved from memory.
Her fingers loosened around Jimmy’s bracelet. It slid from her grasp, hitting the floor softly.
Benji saw it fall.
His voice broke. “Sass… no. Don’t go to him.”
But the words curled around her heart like vines reclaiming a decaying house.
“You found my bracelet,” Jimmy said softly through the broken door. “That means you came for me.”
Her tears spilled. “I did. I DID come for you.”
A beam splintered overhead as another group of Garden followers rammed the back door. Levi dragged a dresser in front of it, shouting, “We’re losing ground!”
Benji grabbed Sassy, tried to drag her toward the rear exit. “We’re leaving—NOW.”
She didn’t budge. “Benji. He’s hurt. He needs me.”
Wren watched her with widening horror.
“No,” Wren said. “No, Sassy, listen to me. He’s not hurt. They don’t mark the Protector. They prize him. They elevate him. They—”
A loud crack cut her off as the front door’s hinges tore free.
Jimmy stepped into the lodge.
Sassy sobbed his name. “JIMMY!”
But Benji shoved her behind him, rifle raised. “You take ONE more step toward her, and—”
Jimmy didn’t even look at Benji. His gaze was fixed entirely on Sassy.
Calm.
Reverent.
Possessive.
“Sassy,” he said, “you’re not supposed to hide from me.”
His voice was so gentle it broke something inside her.
But Wren saw something different. Something chilling. Her voice trembled.
“He’s gone,” she tried explaining. “They’ve taken him. Or he’s given himself. Either way—what you loved in him, it’s not what’s standing there.”
Sassy shook her head violently. “No. No, I know him. He’s in there—Jimmy, please—tell me you’re still in there—”
A flicker crossed Jimmy’s expression. Not pain. Annoyance.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” he said softly. “I’ve never been more myself.”
Benji stared at him but Jimmy never looked away from Sassy. “He’s indoctrinated.”
Jimmy finally snapped his gaze towards Benji.
His eyes hardened. “She wasn’t talking to you.”
Benji aimed the rifle. “Step back.”
Jimmy’s lips twitched into a small, chilling echo of a smile.
“You can’t keep her from me.”
The lodge walls buckled as Garden members slammed the structure from all sides.
Colton yelled, “We’re outnumbered! Benji—call it—now!”
Benji backed Sassy away slowly. “We retreat on my mark.”
But Sassy couldn’t stop staring at Jimmy. His voice caressed her name again.
“Sassy. Come home.”
Her hands shook. “Jimmy… I want you back.”
“You will have me,” he said. “All of me.”
Benji snapped, “Not happening.”
Jimmy turned to him with eerie calm. “You don’t get to decide that.”
He lifted a hand and the Garden followers struck the lodge in unison, collapsing the east wall in a roar of splintered wood and dust. Smoke. Debris. Screams.
Benji grabbed Sassy’s hand. “RUN!”
Levi and Colton opened fire into the collapsing wall. Wren dashed toward the rear exit, turning back once. Only once. Her eyes locked on Sassy’s. And she made a choice. She sprinted into a side passage, waving frantically. “Sassy, THIS WAY! I can get you out!”
But Sassy hesitated.
Just half a second.
Too long.
Because Jimmy stepped fully into the room, pushing aside falling debris as if it weighed nothing. He reached into his jacket. Pulled out a gun. Raised it at Sassy with unsettling calm.
Benji roared, “NO—!”
The world slowed.
Sassy froze.
Jimmy’s eyes—flat, unwavering—met hers.
“Sassy,” he whispered, voice tender, chilling, final.
“You’re coming with me.”
He set his finger on the trigger.
42
Jimmy’s gun was steady. Too steady.
The barrel pointed directly at Sassy’s heart.
His finger curled around the trigger like it belonged there.
His expression was serenity carved into skin.
Behind him, the Garden poured into the ruined lodge, shadowed figures slipping through smoke and shattered beams. Benji shielded Sassy with his body while Levi and Colton fired warning shots, their guns echoing through the collapsing structure.
Wren screamed as a board cracked above her head, the roof sagging inward.
“Sassy,” Jimmy called softly, as if they were alone in the world, “don’t be afraid.”
Benji snarled, “You move one inch closer to her, and I swear—”
Jimmy didn’t even look at him.
His gaze stayed on Sassy.
Only on her.
“You’re not listening,” he said. “You never listen to danger. You only listen to me.”
Sassy trembled. “Jimmy… I’m right here. Put the gun down.”
His head tilted, almost tender.
“I can’t do that,” he said. “Not yet.”
Benji shifted, preparing to lunge.
Jimmy raised the gun a hair higher.
Benji froze.
Colton cursed under his breath and steadied his rifle across the collapsed windowsill. Sweat dripped down his temple as he lined up his shot. One bullet to the shoulder—he could disarm Jimmy without killing him.
He exhaled, finger tightening on the trigger.
But Jimmy saw him.
Without moving the gun off Sassy, he spoke calmly:
“Colton? Don’t.”
The fact that he remembered Colton’s name—
that he used it like a familiar friend—
made Sassy’s blood run cold.
Garden chanting swelled outside. Figures pressed at every broken window. The lodge heaved in the siege. Smoke stung her eyes. The world was collapsing, and Jimmy was the eye of the storm.
“Jimmy,” she said, tears streaking down her cheeks, “come with us. Please. We can help you—”
“I am with you,” Jimmy whispered. “This is me helping you.”
A crack ricocheted through the lodge as Levi’s board finally gave way. Garden members surged through the gap.
Benji fired.
Colton fired.
Chaos exploded.
And in the middle of it, Jimmy lowered the gun a single inch, stepped closer, and mouthed silently:
I love you.
Now run.
Sassy’s mind shattered.
“What—?” she gasped.
Then Jimmy turned.
In one fluid, terrifying motion, he pivoted away from her, leveled the gun toward the Garden and opened fire.
Bullets crashed into the hunters entering the doorway. Three fell instantly. A fourth staggered into the wall, clutching his chest. The chanting turned to alarm, Garden members scrambling for cover.
Benji froze, stunned. “What the—JIMMY?!”
“NOW!” Jimmy roared. “GET HER OUT!”
Colton shouted, “MOVE MOVE MOVE!”
Levi dove for Wren, dragging her toward the rear exit.
Benji grabbed Sassy’s hand so hard it hurt. “Let’s GO!”
Sassy stared at Jimmy, heart cracking in all directions.
He kept shooting—
toward the Garden.
Against them.
Protecting her.
Buying them seconds.
But his eyes—
God, his eyes—
were still flat.
Still hollow.
Still not Jimmy.
Not fully.
A soldier executing orders from a voice deeper than his own.
“RUN!” Jimmy bellowed again, voice raw.
Benji pulled her, and Sassy stumbled after him, heart lodged in her throat. As she was dragged out the back of the collapsing lodge she saw Jimmy drop into a crouch, firing again, taking out another Garden member before ducking behind a splintered beam. Gun smoke curled around him like ritual incense.
He wasn’t defecting. He wasn’t rebelling. He was directing the fight. Giving her exactly what she needed to escape. Because the Garden wanted her to reach a certain place. A certain path. A certain destiny.
He wasn’t saving her from them. He was delivering her to them. And still he had mouthed those words.
I love you.
Now run.
Sassy’s scream caught in her chest as Benji dragged her into the trees. Behind them the lodge fully collapsed, flames spitting out the windows, the ground shaking with the impact.
The last thing she saw before the smoke swallowed him was Jimmy standing absolutely still in the doorway, like the burning building bowed to him.
And then the forest closed around them.
43
The forest erupted with horns, three blasts that shook the night and vibrated through Sassy’s ribs.
Benji pulled her behind him, weaving through the trees. Levi and Colton split off, shouting to draw the Garden’s hunters away. But Sassy could hardly hear them. Jimmy’s voice still echoed through her skull.
I love you.
Now run.
Her legs wobbled; She stumbled, catching herself on a low branch.
Benji steadied her, desperation sharp in his voice. “Sassy, stay with me!”
“He… he turned the gun,” she cried. “He didn’t shoot me. He shot them.”
Benji’s jaw clenched. “I know. And that scares the hell out of me.”
“Why?”
“Because it means he wasn’t fighting us.” Benji swallowed hard. “He was fighting for you.”
Wind tore through the branches. The moon dipped behind clouds, casting the woods into deeper shadow. Behind them, voices rose. The Garden fanning outward, tightening a perimeter.
Wren sprinted up beside them, breath ragged. “They’re closing in! We have to move faster!”
Sassy spun toward her. “Did Jimmy… did he know what he was doing?”
Wren flinched at the question. “I don’t know. Protector states aren’t predictable. They can act out of instinct, devotion, fear—”
“He was protecting me,” Sassy insisted.
Wren nodded slowly, painfully. “Yes. I think he was.”
Benji cursed under his breath but didn’t argue. Not after what they’d all seen.
Branches snapped on both sides of them. The Garden’s torches flickered through the trees, moving as one in a sweeping formation.
Levi’s voice crackled through Benji’s radio. “Benj—they’re forming a crescent. Pushing toward the ridge.”
Benji hissed, “They’re herding us.”
Wren tugged Sassy forward. “There’s a drainage cut up ahead. An old maintenance tunnel. It might give us a place to hide.”
Benji nodded. “Lead the way.”
Sassy followed, but her mind drifted again to Jimmy.
The look in his eyes.
The desperation.
The way he threw himself between her and the Garden’s guns.
He wasn’t trying to take her.
He was trying to buy her seconds.
Buy her space.
Buy her freedom.
But had he survived that chaos? A cold shiver crawled up her spine.
“Jimmy…” she said.
Benji squeezed her hand. “Don’t look back. He wanted you to run.”
A sharp whistle sliced through the air.
Wren gasped. “Arrow!”
Benji yanked Sassy down as a barbed bolt shredded through the branches overhead.
Levi fired from the left flank. “They’ve got archers?!? Two, maybe three!”
Torches swarmed behind them. Commanders shouted.
“FAN OUT. DON’T LET THE BLOOM ESCAPE!”
“CHECK THE SOUTH RIDGE!”
“THE PROTECTOR IS DOWN. LOCATE HIM!”
Sassy froze mid-step. Protector is down. Her heart stopped. Jimmy.
Benji grabbed her shoulders. “Don’t. DON’T stop.”
“Benji. They said—”
“I know what they said,” he cut in, voice breaking. “But we don’t know anything yet.”
Tears burned behind her eyes. She forced herself forward.
Wren slid down a slope of loose dirt and gravel toward a narrow concrete cut nearly hidden under years of moss. Sassy followed, stumbling into Benji’s arms as he steadied her and hurried her deeper inside.
The space was cramped, dark, smelling of rust and wet stone. But it was shelter. Colton and Levi regrouped behind them, panting, dirt-streaked, weapons half-spent.
“We can hold them off here for a minute,” Levi relayed to the group.
Benji shook his head. “No. We keep moving.”
Wren pointed toward the far end of the drainage tunnel. “It opens into the quarry ruins. We can hide and regroup. Maybe even lose them.”
Sassy leaned against the cold wall, breath shaking. “I—he was protecting me. Jimmy was protecting me.”
Benji crouched in front of her, his face torn open with fear, anger, and compassion. “I know he was.”
She looked up sharply. “You do?”
Benji nodded, voice rough. “Yeah. I saw it. But that doesn’t tell us if he made it out.”
Sassy stilled. The forest rang with distant shouts.
Someone cried, “WE FOUND BLOOD!”
Benji’s face paled.
Colton asked, “Whose?”
The hunters didn’t answer.
Sassy’s heart hammered so hard she felt faint.
Jimmy.
Jimmy bleeding.
Jimmy surrounded.
Jimmy shouting for her to run— And now… Silence.
The ache was unbearable.
Benji reached out and took her hand, voice trembling despite his attempt at calm. “We don’t know whose blood. We don’t know if he’s alive or—”
He couldn’t finish.
Sassy’s chest caved inward. She pressed Jimmy’s bracelet to her forehead, shaking with grief she didn’t yet have permission to feel.
Wren stepped forward, voice soft. “Sassy… whatever Jimmy did? He wasn’t trying to hurt you. I’ve seen Protectors turned cruel. Violent. Lost.”
She swallowed. “But not him. Not tonight.”
Sassy nodded weakly. She closed her eyes. Behind her lids, she saw Jimmy stepping into the doorway of the burning lodge.
I love you.
Now run.
She said into the dark, “Thank you, Jimmy.”
Benji helped her to her feet. “Come on. We’re moving.”
Sassy glanced one last time toward the forest behind them—the smoke rising above the treetops, the torches weaving like fireflies, the echoes of a hunt still unfolding.
A hunt Jimmy had thrown himself into the middle of. To save her. To protect her. Whether he survived that sacrifice… No one knew. Not yet.
Sassy whispered into the cold night, “Please be alive.”
Then she turned and followed Benji, Wren, Levi, and Colton deeper into the ruins
toward whatever waited next.
And behind them, unseen—a single drop of blood slid down a leaf and fell silently into the earth.
44
The quarry ruins spread out before them like the skeleton of some ancient beast. Rusted metal scaffolding, crumbling stone platforms, and black pools of stagnant water reflecting moonlight like shards of broken mirrors. The place was abandoned decades ago, long before any of them were born.
It was quiet here.
Almost too quiet.
Benji led the way down a gravel incline, still gripping his rifle as though it were an extension of his own heartbeat. Sassy trailed close behind, her hand wrapped around Jimmy’s bracelet, holding it so tightly the leather creaked.
Colton and Levi took the rear, checking every shadow. Wren moved beside Sassy, visibly shaken but trying to keep pace. When they reached the rusted shell of a maintenance shed built into the rock wall, Benji signaled for them to duck inside.
Levi checked the doorframe. “No tracks. No fresh prints. We might’ve lost them.”
“No,” Wren said decoding for the group. “You don’t lose the Garden. You just delay them.”
Benji shot her a look. “Not helping.”
Inside, the shed was barely more than a hollow of broken tools and dust. The roof had caved partly inward, letting in a slice of moonlight that painted the floor silver. It was enough to see the fear on everyone’s faces.
Benji guided Sassy toward an overturned spool they could use as a seat. “Sit.”
She obeyed without protest. Her legs had stopped fully listening to her an hour ago.
Her voice cracked when she finally spoke. “We have to go back.”
Benji crouched in front of her, shaking his head. “No.”
“We can’t leave him,” she said. “Not like this. Not—”
“Sassy.” His voice softened. “We don’t even know if he’s—if he—”
She flinched before he could finish.
Benji shut his mouth, throat working.
Wren knelt beside Sassy. “We will find him. But not tonight. If we go back now, we die.”
Sassy closed her eyes, tears slipping silently down her cheeks. The bracelet hung from her fingers like a broken promise.
Levi paced near the door. “We can’t stay here long. This is a funnel point—they could trap us from both sides.”
Colton leaned against the wall, rubbing the back of his neck. “We’re running low on ammo. And Jimmy’s… situation complicates things.”
Benji straightened sharply. “Don’t say his name like that.”
Colton held up both hands. “Hey, I’m not blaming him. I’m just saying, Sassy’s right. We need a plan. And we don’t have one.”
Benji turned away, jaw clenched, shoulders coiled tight.
Wren took a shaky breath. “The Garden has methods of… resetting a Protector. If he fought them, if he defied instructions—”
Sassy snapped her gaze up. “He didn’t defy them. He saved me.”
Wren hesitated. “Yes. And that might be why he’s—”
She stopped herself.
Benji grabbed her arm. “WHY he’s WHAT?”
Wren swallowed hard. “Why he’s suffering. The Garden doesn’t tolerate deviation. If Jimmy acted on his own. If he chose her safety over the ritual—”
Sassy’s breath stilled.
Benji’s voice dropped to a dangerous rumble. “Finish it.”
Wren’s eyes filled with tears. “They might have punished him for it.”
Sassy doubled forward, a broken sound escaping her. Benji wrapped his arms around her before she could collapse fully, pulling her to his chest.
He pressed his cheek to her hair, voice cracking. “I’m sorry. Sass, I’m so sorry.”
Her fingers curled into his shirt. “He can’t be gone. He can’t. He—he told me to run. He—he wanted me safe.”
“I know.” Benji’s voice wavered. “I know he did.”
The room fell silent except for her sobs.
Levi froze at the door. Hand lifted. Everyone stilled.
“Did you hear that?” he whispered.
Benji released Sassy gently, grabbing his rifle and moving to Levi’s side.
Another sound followed—
A crack.
A shift of gravel.
A soft shuffle.
Not close.
Not far.
Somewhere in the maze of ruins outside.
Colton raised his gun. “Tell me that’s an animal.”
Wren shook her head, trembling. “No animal walks like that.”
Benji scanned the darkness. “Sassy, stay behind me.”
She moved closer automatically, though her heart felt like it had fallen out of her body and onto the ground behind them somewhere.
The sound came again.
Not approaching.
Just lingering.
Watching.
A shadow shifted where no shadow should.
Levi hissed, “Lights off.”
They killed the lantern. Moonlight became their only guide.
Wren stepped toward the door, peering into the dark with an expression that was not fear, but recognition.
“It’s not a hunter,” she said. “Hunters move fast. They don’t… lurk.”
Benji tightened his grip on the rifle. “Then what is it?”
Wren’s voice trembled.
“A Reclaimer.”
Sassy’s breathing slowed, trying to calm herself and focus. “What’s that?”
Wren swallowed so hard it clicked. “They’re sent when the Garden isn’t trying to capture someone. They’re sent when the Garden is… cleaning up.”
Colton flinched. “Cleaning up what?”
Wren whispered the answer like a curse.
“Bodies.”
Sassy felt her knees give.
“No,” she said. “Jimmy’s alive. He has to be.”
A shape moved in the brush—
tall
upright
slow
deliberate.
Benji raised his rifle. “Everyone, stay behind me.”
The figure stepped forward into a sliver of moonlight—
Cloaked.
Maskless.
Hands empty.
A Garden Reclaimer. Sent for one purpose.
Sassy pressed a shaking hand to her mouth.
Her lungs refused to fill.
Benji took aim at the figure’s chest.
The Reclaimer raised one arm and in its hand dangled something small. Leather. Frayed.
Jimmy’s bracelet.
Sassy’s scream ripped the air.
45
The Reclaimer stepped deeper into the moonlight, unmoving, its silhouette carved in cold angles. It held out the bracelet—Jimmy’s bracelet—dangling between two fingers as if it weighed nothing. As if it meant nothing.
But to Sassy, it was the last piece of him she’d held onto. And now it was in the hand of a Garden operative trained to erase the past.
Benji kept the rifle raised, voice sharp as a blade. “DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!”
The Reclaimer didn’t obey, but it didn’t advance either. It simply stood there, watching them with an unnerving, almost patient stillness.
Sassy staggered forward before Benji could stop her.
“Where is he?” she choked out. “Where’s Jimmy?”
The Reclaimer tilted its head, as if studying her. Then, in a voice rough from disuse, it spoke:
“He resisted.”
Sassy’s heart shattered.
“You say one more thing to her, and I drop you,” Benji said menacingly.
The Reclaimer ignored him, stepping closer—not aggressive, not timid. Just inevitable.
“He resisted,” it repeated, “and the Garden responded.”
Sassy fell to her knees, the world dimming. “No. No—he wouldn’t let you take him. He wouldn’t—he wouldn’t—”
Benji caught her, held her upright against his chest as she shook. His voice vibrated with rage. “Where is he? Alive or dead? You tell us right now.”
The Reclaimer did not answer immediately. Instead, it loosened its fingers.
The bracelet fell. It hit the gravel with a tiny, heartbreakingly soft sound.
Sassy lunged for it, but Benji held her back until he confirmed the Reclaimer wasn’t drawing a weapon. Only then did he let her scramble forward and seize the bracelet, clutching it to her chest as she sobbed.
Wren stepped toward the Reclaimer, hands trembling. “You’re not supposed to reveal outcomes. Reclaimers collect evidence, they don’t communicate with targets.”
The Reclaimer turned its empty gaze toward her. “She is not a target. She is an asset.”
Benji stiffened. “The hell she is.”
Wren pressed a hand to her mouth, horrified. “Oh God… they’ve escalated.”
Levi hissed from the shadows, “What does that mean?”
Wren backed away like the realization physically rattled her. “Reclaimers only approach the Bloom if the High Mother has changed the directive. If they want her alive for a new purpose.”
Benji’s rifle twitched higher. “Which purpose?”
The Reclaimer stepped forward once. Everyone tensed. Even the night seemed to hold its breath.mThen the Reclaimer said something that chilled Sassy’s blood so deeply she felt it in her bones:
“The Protector chose her safety over obedience. This makes him… unstable.”
Sassy’s breath hitched. “He saved me.”
“Yes,” the Reclaimer said.
“And you punished him for that?” she snarled.
The Reclaimer tilted its head. “Correction: He was given a choice.”
Benji spat, “You monsters call that a choice?”
The Reclaimer seemed almost confused by the outrage. “Protection of the Bloom is a sacred role. He was offered clarity. His acceptance was… incomplete.”
Sassy’s hands shook violently. “Just tell me. Is he alive?”
The Reclaimer’s answer was neither immediate nor gentle.
“He was alive when we left him.”
Sassy’s heart twisted in both relief and agony. “Then he’s—he’s okay? He—”
The Reclaimer cut her off.
“He was alive,” it repeated with clinical finality. “His status is now unknown.”
Sassy felt the world tilt.
Benji surged forward, rage boiling over. “UNKNOWN? UNKNOWN?! If he’s hurt—if he’s dying out there alone—you tell us RIGHT NOW—”
Colton and Levi caught him by the arms, barely keeping him from charging.
Wren stepped forward, voice thin with fear. “Why approach us? Why bring the bracelet?”
The Reclaimer simply pointed—its arm rising slowly, deliberately—toward Sassy.
“The Bloom must come.”
Sassy froze.
Benji tore free from Levi’s grip and stepped in front of her. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”
The Reclaimer lowered its arm. “She is not being asked.”
Sassy’s voice trembled. “If I go with you… will you take me to Jimmy?”
The Reclaimer paused. And for the first time since stepping into the quarry, it hesitated. That small hesitation was more terrifying than any threat.
Wren stepped beside Sassy. “Don’t ask that. Don’t—don’t even think it. That’s how they get inside your head.”
But Sassy’s eyes remained locked on the figure.
“Please,” she pleaded. “Tell me if he’s suffering.”
The Reclaimer tilted its head again. Then said something too soft for anyone but her to hear.
“His faith wavered. His fate is… fluid.”
Sassy’s heart cracked wide open.
Benji’s hand trembled around his rifle. “Get away from her.”
The Reclaimer didn’t move.
“Why bring me this?” She held up the bracelet, shaking. “Why give me something of his?”
The Reclaimer answered simply.
“To guide you.”
Sassy stiffened.
Benji’s eyes burned. “Don’t listen. Don’t you listen to a word—”
But Sassy wasn’t listening anymore because something else caught her attention. A smear of dark, rust-colored blood on the bracelet. Fresh. Jimmy’s blood. She staggered backward into Benji, nearly collapsing.
Benji caught her, arms wrapping around her protectively. “Sass—Sass, I’ve got you—”
But her gaze stayed fixed on the bracelet.
On the blood.
On the Reclaimer.
Who finally spoke with chilling simplicity:
“He watches for you.”
The words punched the air out of Sassy’s lungs.
Benji snarled, “You’ve said enough.”
“No,” the Reclaimer said, “not yet.”
It raised a hand and the entire shed shuddered.
Levi shouted, “MOVE—EVERYBODY MOVE!”
Benji grabbed Sassy, hauling her backward.
The Reclaimer took one step forward—