Goliath's smile didn't fade. If anything, it deepened, shadowed by something that felt almost like triumph. He tapped the head of his cane lightly against the stone floor, as if marking the rhythm of a lesson long rehearsed.
"You heard me," he said quietly, golden eyes bright beneath the lantern glow. "That mark on your neck, the one he left you with, it's not just a claim, Gabriel. It's a thread. A living one. It ties you to him beyond time, beyond distance… beyond worlds."
Gabriel felt his pulse jolt, the faint burn of Damian's mark flaring under the collar of his coat as though it had heard the words. He remembered the heat of teeth breaking skin, the low rasp of Damian's breath, the strange pull in his chest afterward that had never quite gone away.
"But… this shard isn't real," Gabriel said slowly, almost to himself. "It's ether, memory, a cage Olivier built. How can…"
