Chunks of earth floated around Amelia like orbiting moons. Pebbles and boulders alike drifted in the same invisible current, each turning with the same effortless grace, as if bound to her by unseen threads.
She moved one hand, and the stones shifted, sliding into a loose ring that spun lazily. With her other hand, she clenched her fist—three larger stones snapped into place midair, locking into a perfect triangle. A flick of her fingers, and they lowered back to the ground in a slow, deliberate descent, landing without a single thud.
She took a breath and stepped forward. The soil beneath her feet rippled. Clods of dirt and shards of stone rose, swirling faster until they melded into the shape of a massive sledgehammer. It hovered for only a heartbeat before drifting down into her waiting palms. She held it there, balanced and whole, then released it. The hammer dissolved into dust, spilling between her fingers as the rocks around her began to rise again.
No one spoke.
Yet, it wasn't just the power that kept us silent. There was something about the air that felt… fragile. Like the wrong word might shatter it.
Amelia slowly lowered her hands. One by one, the stones settled gently back to the ground, as though reluctant to leave her.
Only then did we all remember to breathe.
The silence lingered longer than it should have. I would've bet money that Ella or Henry would break it, but neither of them did.
And then I saw her face.
There wasn't triumph or relief.
Amelia just looked… distant.
She moved to a fallen log and sat, idly stirring the dirt with her fingers, her gaze unfocused. For a moment, something like hope flickered there—but it didn't last. It slipped, giving way to something heavier almost as soon as it appeared.
Ella glanced her way, the start of a sentence caught behind her lips, but thought better of it and returned to her work. The others followed her lead, keeping their distance.
I couldn't blame them.
Whatever was going through Amelia's head made everyone hesitate, as if none of us knew how to help her. Benjamin was the only one who didn't look confused. He watched her quietly, his expression heavy, like he understood enough not to ask.
Still, my gaze kept finding her.
The dust beneath her fingertip began to swirl, gathering slowly into the shape of a small teddy bear. It wobbled unsteadily on clumsy legs, swaying from side to side.
For a moment, she smiled.
Then it was gone, buried beneath a heavy sorrow.
What could have put her in such a state? Powers like that were the kind of thing people would kill for, the kind of thing you'd expect to bring celebration, or at least relief. But whatever was going on behind her eyes… it wasn't joy.
I kept watching her, waiting for some hint of an answer, some small shift in her expression that might make sense of it. But she only sat there, stirring the dirt with her fingers, lost somewhere none of us could reach.
Then, like a distant echo, my own body reminded me it had problems of its own.
I shifted, trying to find a position that didn't feel like every inch of me had been stitched together with wire. But no matter how I moved, there was always another cut, another bruise, another sharp reminder waiting to agonize me.
"So, how do you feel?"
Ella's voice cut through the hush as she approached, her hands still stained red despite her attempts to scrub them clean with a rag. Her tone was light, just a little too light for everything that had just happened, but I recognized the effort behind it.
I drew in a shaky breath. "I'll live." It came out rough, but it was the best I could manage.
She winced. "Okay… yeah, that was a dumb question," she muttered, dropping down beside me with a tired sigh.
After a moment, her eyes flicked toward me. "Do you want some water?"
Eyeing the canteen, I gave the faintest nod as she pressed it gently to my lips, allowing the blessedly clean water to wash away the sandpaper dryness in my throat.
"Thanks," I rasped, my voice a little steadier
"No, thank you," she said, a faint but genuine smile tugging at her lips. "Without you and Amelia, we'd probably be monster chow by now."
That earned a small breath of a laugh from me, though it didn't last long.
We fell into silence after that, the kind that settles in after bloodshed. Too much to say, too much to process, so neither of us tried. We just sat there, letting the quiet fill in the gaps.
Then, as if deciding she'd had enough of it, Ella tilted her head toward me.
"So… what do you think of the name TwinSight Bear?"
My brain lagged behind for a second before catching up. TwinSight Bear. Not bad, honestly. Better than half the names she usually threw out.
"I like it," I murmured. Then, after a beat, I added, "Though… Seven-Eye Bear has a certain ring to it."
Ella snorted. "Oh my god, no."
"But it had seven eyes," I said, deadpan.
"Not all in one place, remember?"
"Still counts."
"No way," she shot back, grinning now. "I'm not calling it Seven-Eye Bear. Sounds like a cartoon villain."
I huffed a quiet laugh, or tried to. The pain in my side dragged a wince out of me instead.
The moment lingered for just a second longer—
Then the wind shifted.
It was subtle at first. Just enough to pull at the edges of the silence. Ella's smile faded as both our gazes lifted.
The sky had already been dark, but now it seemed to sink even lower, like something heavy was pressing down from above. Around us, the mist began to rise in thick ribbons, curling upward until it gathered overhead and folded into itself, forming the slow, twisting shape of a storm.
The air grew heavy. Charged.
Somewhere far above, thunder rumbled.
Then the wind howled.
At first, it only stirred the leaves and sent loose dust skittering across the ground. But then it grew stronger, pushing at the trees, tugging at our clothes, and dragging smaller stones across the earth, like whatever ruled this place had begun to wake.
My stomach turned with instinctive dread as a bolt of lightning struck down in the distance. The last thing I wanted was to survive all of this, only to be struck by lightning.
"Get Atlas to cover!"
Amelia's voice cut through the sudden roar of the wind.
"Owen, Emily, help Atlas!" she barked, already scanning the tree line for shelter.
The wind howled louder.
I tried to stand, but the moment I shifted, pain ripped through my leg and side. My body buckled beneath it, and I would've collapsed entirely if Owen hadn't caught me under one arm. Emily was there a heartbeat later, slipping beneath my other. Together, they half-dragged, half-guided me toward the largest tree in sight.
Every step was a battle. My leg burned like it was packed with shards of glass, and my ribs protested each breath with sharp, tearing pain. I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth to keep from making a sound as the cold wind lashed at us, tugging at our clothes and shoving against our backs.
Ahead, a massive tree rose from the dark earth, its roots twisting out in thick arches with branches wide enough to shield us from most of the rain.
Only once we reached a gap between the roots did Owen slow.
"Here," he muttered.
He eased me down as carefully as he could, mindful of my injuries.
Not that it mattered.
No matter how gently he moved me, the pain from the walk roared through my mind, drowning out everything else. My breath came in short, frantic bursts as I tried to steady myself, breathing shallow and slow, because anything deeper sent agony stabbing through my ribs, but it barely helped.
For a while, that was all there was.
Pain, rain, and the distant rumble of thunder.
But soon enough, other sounds began to break through. Amelia shouting orders. Gear being dragged across the dirt. The rustle of something heavy being pulled overhead.
A moment later, a stretch of hide was hauled into place above us, shielding the hollow between the roots from the worst of the rain.
Then, after what felt like far longer than it probably was, a small fire flickered to life nearby, its glow sheltered beneath the makeshift canopy of hide and damp gear.
Slowly, the worst of the pain began to ebb, and my thoughts settled into something close to focus.
That was when Ella dropped beside me, setting her kit down with a quiet thud. Her hands moved quickly, arranging a makeshift cutting station on a flat stone before slicing thin strips of meat with what remained of my knife's blade.
Noticing the fractured steel, I couldn't help but sigh inwardly. She might as well keep it. There was no way it would be of any use in a fight now.
Turning toward her, I tried to lighten the mood.
"Got any salt on you?" I asked, half-joking.
To my surprise, she rifled through her bag and produced a small, pale chunk of rock. "Actually, yeah. Sodium chloride, technically," she said with a grin.
I raised a brow. "What are you, some kind of mobile kitchen?"
She smirked. "No butter, if that's what you're hoping for."
I chuckled, then instantly regretted it when my ribs stabbed into me.
As she shaved salt over the meat, I leaned back against the trunk, watching the firelight dance over our tired faces.
For a little while, I tried to let myself stay there.
With the fire. With the rain. With the quiet scrape of Ella's knife against stone.
But my mind wasn't entirely there.
It drifted back to the fight.
The creature's snarling maw. Its sheer size, looming over us like a nightmare given form. The crushing weight of its blows. The urgency in Amelia's voice. The snap of bone and the scream of stone as it tore through air and flesh.
My hands clenched before I realized it, muscles tightening as if bracing for another hit. Even now, some part of me was still back there.
If I'd been just one step slower…
No.
I exhaled slowly.
Regret wouldn't help. All I could do now was learn from it. After all, it wasn't like I'd been trained to fight giants and whatever else this place decided to throw at us.
Still, I hated how much I had to rely on them right now. Hated that I couldn't help. Hated that I needed someone else just to sit up.
But I couldn't ignore the truth either.
We were alive.
Against something like that, it was a miracle any of us had made it through at all.
In the end, that had to matter more than my pride.
The thought lingered as the warmth of the fire pressed against me and exhaustion slowly dragged at my limbs. My body sagged heavier against the tree, my eyes growing harder and harder to keep open.
Eventually, I stopped fighting it.
Sleep claimed me.
But peace didn't follow.
In the depths of sleep, the storm never ended. It only changed. Firelight dimmed and bled away, replaced by lightning that split an endless sky in jagged flashes. The ground dissolved into thick, roiling mist that crept in from all sides. It curled around me, clinging to my skin and smothering everything in a heavy, oppressive silence.
Until that silence broke.
Screams echoed in the distance like a haunting warning. Then, out of the mist, a figure appeared, scorched beyond recognition. It reached out, its voice like charcoal dragged across stone, pleading with me to follow.
I took a step, but before I could catch its stumbling figure, it crumbled into ash, scattering on an unseen wind and leaving me swaying in the emptiness it left behind.
I woke with a jolt, my body drenched in sweat, my breath coming fast and shallow. The storm outside was still raging, but something was different.
My neck was burning.
I instinctively reached for the mark, only to feel something strange coating my skin. Yanking my hand back, I stared in horror at the thing covering it.
My hand was coated in a cold, void-like substance.
Then my mind reeled as I watched it spread up my arm and along my neck, where more of it seemingly leaked out of my mark, spilling downward across my chest.
The substance moved with purpose, creeping along my skin and seeping into the wounds that had been tormenting me. It felt cold, yet oddly soothing, as if the pain were being swallowed whole by the darkness.
As it fused with the injuries, I felt torn flesh pull together and bruised muscle knit itself back into place with eerie precision. I gasped, staring down at my leg in disbelief as the puncture wound sealed before my eyes.
The pain was gone.
Completely erased in a matter of seconds.
Slowly, I flexed my leg, and it moved without a trace of discomfort.
What… what just happened?
I touched my arm, then my chest, gingerly feeling where the cuts and bruises had been. The aches that had plagued me were fading, replaced by a strange, almost invigorating sensation.
My body, which had been wrecked with pain, was healing.
No, it had healed.
Everything was healed as the substance dissipated, vanishing as quickly as it had appeared and leaving only smooth, unblemished skin behind.
The voice echoed in my mind again.
"Follow."
Yet this time, it was faint, as if whatever it had done was all it could manage.
For a long moment, I just sat there, stunned. Then, testing my strength, I pushed myself up onto my feet.
There was no pain.
How?
My legs held steady. I stood upright, fully mobile, as if the injuries had never existed. Relief washed over me, but it was soon followed by confusion.
Amelia, Owen, and Ella, who were busy a moment ago, stopped mid-motion as they noticed me standing. I could feel their eyes on me, confusion shifting to shock and back to confusion again as they slowly registered what they were seeing.
"Atlas?" Amelia's voice was filled with disbelief. "You... how are you standing?"
Ella's mouth dropped open, her eyes wide with bewilderment. "But you…you couldn't even move. What... what just happened?"
Owen looked between me and the now-healed wound on my leg, his expression a mix of awe and confusion.
I glanced down at myself, still trying to process it all. "I don't know," I admitted, barely able to comprehend the reality myself. "There was this dream… and then this... substance…it just..." I trailed off, not knowing how to explain it.
For a moment, the camp was silent, everyone grappling with what they had just witnessed. Benjamin rubbed his temples, clearly trying to make sense of the situation. "That's... impossible," he murmured.
Ella, still staring at me like I'd just clawed my way back from the grave, finally shook her head. "Whatever that was… it saved you."
I gave a slow nod, the weight of her words sinking deep into my chest. I didn't understand what had happened, why I was still alive, or what the voice in my head had truly meant. But I did know one thing. Whatever had healed me gave me that dream on purpose. But what was I supposed to follow?
Just then, a sound shattered the moment.
A sharp crack split the sky, louder than thunder, deeper, like the heavens themselves were tearing apart. Everyone's heads snapped upward.
Then we saw it.
A massive form tore across the canopy above, a storm of motion and light cutting through the rain. For a heartbeat, it hung there like the embodiment of power itself, before vanishing beyond the leaves and leaving only the crackle of blue arcs and searing white sparks dancing across the treetops.
Then it came again.
Closer this time.
I caught a glimpse of its massive wings, carved impossibly from lightning itself. My mind balked, refusing to shape what I was seeing into anything tangible. This wasn't right.
It couldn't be real, I told myself
Yet the creature didn't need understanding to exist. It let loose a deafening screech that tore through the clearing and rooted itself in my bones.
Then, just as suddenly, it pulled back into the storm clouds above, leaving only the fading crackle of energy and the silence it carved in its wake.
For a moment, none of us moved.
Then the wind howled louder, the storm redoubling its fury in the wake of the creature's passage, allowing for my mind to finally snap into focus.
"We need to move!"
Amelia's shock vanished, replaced by something close to panic.
"Grab anything you can and go!"
Her voice cracked like a whip through the rising chaos. Everyone sprang into motion, shoving supplies into bags and snatching up whatever they could carry.
I moved quickly too, surprising even myself as I gathered my things without so much as a twinge of pain. For a brief second, I froze, waiting for it to return.
But it didn't.
Amelia caught my eye, clearly just as stunned, but neither of us had time to question it. Not now.
Glancing back at the sky, I saw the creature again, drifting through the storm with an almost deliberate grace, as if it could sense us below.
Which meant we didn't have any more time.
We took off through the forest, our eyes fixed ahead while lightning danced in strange patterns across the horizon. The storm followed close behind, its reach shifting and expanding as if it were searching, narrowing in on our location with every passing second.
I scanned the trees, searching for somewhere, anywhere, we could hide, when something flickered at the edge of my vision.
Its presence was eerily distinct, like a shadow perched on a low branch, unmoving but watching all the same.
A chill prickled the back of my neck. It wasn't the first time I'd seen something like this. Memories of distant, half-forgotten encounters in the desert stirred in my mind, but I didn't question the instinct that told me to follow. My gut tightened, an unshakable pull guiding my steps.
The moment I moved, the shape dissolved into the mist.
Behind me, the others hesitated for only a second before following my lead. My eyes darted back to where it had been, but there was nothing.
Then it reappeared farther ahead.
Again and again, it flickered in and out of sight, always just beyond reach, leading us deeper into the forest.
I should have felt uneasy. And maybe I did. But somewhere beneath that unease was a quiet certainty, telling me this was our only chance.
The storm above grew fiercer, as if the sky itself was unraveling. Thunder cracked so violently it shook the ground beneath our feet, and lightning tore through the sky in jagged streaks, lighting the forest in bursts of pale white fire.
Then the shape came into view again.
But this time, it wasn't fleeting.
The shape that had lingered just beyond our sight now loomed overhead, no longer a distant flicker of motion. It moved above the treetops as an avian titan of lightning and storm. Its wings crackled with raw energy, each beat sending shimmering waves through the air. Feathers that weren't feathers at all, but jagged filaments of light, snapped and shimmered around it like a crown of static.
Then it paused.
Suspended directly above us, the creature hovered with terrifying stillness. Every bolt of lightning in the storm seemed to bend toward it, drawn to its presence. The wind howled. Trees bent and groaned. My breath caught in my throat as its glowing eyes locked onto us through the storm.
Then, in a single, terrifying instant, it folded its wings and dove, collapsing into a blinding bolt of energy that hurtled straight toward us.
In response, Amelia thrust her hands forward, her newfound power tearing through the earth. The ground split as jagged spires of stone surged upward, forming a barrier between us and the oncoming strike.
For a heartbeat, hope stirred.
The creature slammed into the wall with a thunderous impact, wings flaring in a storm of light. Rock held against lightning, and for that single instant, I thought, maybe, just maybe, we could fight this thing.
Then it shattered.
The wall erupted in a blinding spray of dust and static. Lightning tore through the stone, sizzling and cracking as the barrier collapsed, fragments disintegrating into scorched earth.
Even so, those few stolen seconds mattered.
We darted around a cluster of trees, putting distance between us and the creature.
Just as hope began to flicker again, it shot upward.
It pierced the storm, then spread its wings wide, its entire body burning with white-blue light. For a moment, it looked less like a creature and more like a wound torn open in the sky.
Then a bolt of lightning fired from its body, streaking straight toward Emily.
"Emily!"
Owen moved before anyone else could.
He shoved her aside at the last second, taking the full force of the blast himself. His body seized instantly, limbs locking as arcs of energy tore across him, burning through skin and clothing alike. Smoke rose from him as he convulsed beneath the force, his mouth open in a scream I could barely hear over the storm.
Then he collapsed.
"Owen!" Emily's scream tore through the chaos.
She lunged for him, desperation overriding sense, but before she could reach him, the bird dropped from above.
A flash of searing white swallowed Owen whole.
For one terrible heartbeat, his body burned within that light.
Then there was nothing left but ash, scattering across the scorched ground.
It landed like a blow I couldn't block. The air ripped out of me.
Gone.
He was gone… just like that.
Emily's cries rang in my ears. Her face twisted in anguish as she fought against Ella's grip, reaching for the storm that had devoured him. Ella held her fast, grim determination locking her arms around Emily before she could throw herself into the same fate.
The wind carried Owen's ashes away, scattering what was left of him into the storm as if he had never been there at all.
We ran harder after that, the memory of what we'd just seen driving our legs faster than adrenaline alone ever could. Every breath burned. Every step felt heavier than the last. But none of us dared slow.
Then, after a few more frantic turns, the forest broke open.
The treeline gave way to a vast, gaping field, and within it moved the strangest things.
At first, my mind couldn't make sense of it.
The only word that came to mind was Rifts.
Countless tears in space flickered open and shut in chaotic rhythm. They blinked in and out, swirling voids that seemed to chew the world apart at its seams. But it wasn't just the ground that was wrong.
Above the field, stones hung suspended in the air.
Hundreds of them.
No, thousands.
Chunks of earth, broken roots, and jagged slabs of rock drifted overhead, caught in a slow, spiraling motion. They circled the rifts like debris trapped in a current, rising and falling in uneven paths, some pulled upward, others dragged sideways as if gravity itself had lost direction.
The entire field moved like a vortex.
The air twisted. The ground felt unstable beneath my feet, like it wasn't fully there. Even the rain bent as it fell, streaking sideways or curving midair as it was dragged toward the nearest tear.
Each rift beckoned like a doorway to somewhere else, but every step toward them was a gamble. Each flicker was a coin toss between life and oblivion.
Amelia's voice rang out through the chaos, steady and unflinching.
"We have no choice! Into the field!"
Just then, a bolt split the air, striking a tree so close the world seemed to shatter with the sound. The trunk exploded into a hail of splinters that hissed through the rain like knives. Pain flared along my side as several shards tore into me, but there was no time to stop.
I clenched my jaw and forced my legs to keep moving.
The field was worse.
The moment we crossed into it, the world tilted.
My next step came down too light, my weight shifting wrong as the ground seemed to pull away beneath me. For a split second, I almost drifted, my body lagging behind the motion as if something had tried to lift me off my feet.
Only for that pull to fade, leaving every step a gamble, not just from the rifts, but from the ground itself. Gravity pulled in strange directions, dragging at my limbs, then releasing them without warning. Some steps felt heavy, like I was wading through mud, while others sent me lurching forward too fast, nearly throwing me off balance.
Above us, the stones continued to spiral, shifting faster now, drawn tighter around the rifts as if the entire field was feeding into something unseen.
Rifts blinked in and out without pattern. Some yawned open feet ahead, while others snapped into existence at my heels. I didn't know what would happen if I touched one, but the gaping holes gouged into the earth where they'd appeared were enough to tell me it wouldn't be good.
At the edge of the field, the bird faltered.
Lightning crawled across its body in jagged arcs of blue-white, its gaze fixed on the shimmering distortions tearing at the ground between us. For one fragile heartbeat, hope flickered in my chest.
Maybe it wouldn't follow.
But that hope died a second later as it hurled itself after us.
What was wrong with this thing? I thought, unable to comprehend why it was so determined to kill us that it would throw itself into something like this?
Yet the moment it crossed into the field, the storm broke around it.
Its wings beat once, then stuttered as the air twisted. Arcs of lightning bent sharply, dragged sideways into the nearest rift. The creature shrieked, its form flickering as if parts of it couldn't decide where they belonged.
Then one wing clipped a tear.
For an instant, part of it simply vanished.
Swallowed whole by the void.
The creature recoiled violently, its advance snapping to a halt as it jerked back, energy flaring wildly across its body. The space around the missing section crackled, unstable, as if it were trying to rebuild itself but unable to.
But it didn't retreat.
If anything, it grew more violent.
It lashed out with a deafening screech, lightning spilling from its body in uncontrolled bursts. Bolts slammed into the field, some striking the ground, others vanishing into rifts mid-flight, cutting off in jagged fragments that flickered out of existence.
The entire vortex reacted.
The stones above shifted faster, pulled tighter into their spiraling paths. Some broke free entirely, ripping through the air in erratic arcs as the distorted gravity surged around us.
Chunks of rock pelted the field, crashing into the ground and vanishing through rifts before they could settle. A few shot past close enough to make us flinch, but none of it mattered. The horror of the bird behind us kept us moving.
We tore across the field, weaving through the chaos as rifts snapped open and shut around us. They blinked into existence like jagged shards of glass suspended in midair, always too close, never predictable. Every step was a gamble, every breath a prayer, as the world fractured and stitched itself back together faster than my eyes could follow.
Left. Right. Down. There was no rhythm, no pattern, only the constant threat that the next tear would open exactly where I stood.
And then, something went wrong.
My leg gave out…
No, I didn't stumble; there just wasn't ground under my foot.
Before I knew it, the ground was rushing up to meet me–
Crack!
Amelia Grayson
My heart pounded like a war drum, each beat rattling through my skull as I staggered across the field of shimmering tears. The rifts blinked in and out with no real patterns. One wrong step, one heartbeat too slow, and I'd be gone, ripped into somewhere else or torn apart mid-stride.
But something was wrong.
My legs felt heavy, sluggish, as if the ground itself were dragging me down. I should have been faster. So much faster.
But then I saw it.
A splintered length of wood jutted from my thigh, likely cutting into a blood vessel by the way blood poured down my leg in a torrent, making each step weaker than the last.
The moment my focus wavered, my foot slid into a hollow carved by a rift. My ankle twisted with a sickening snap, and I pitched forward, crashing into the dirt. My head smacked against the ground, stars bursting across my vision.
The world tilted. Colors bled and shifted, the rifts flickering in and out of sight like broken lanterns. My pulse thundered in my ears. Why… why did it all have to happen like this? It was supposed to be a simple scouting mission. Just in and out. But this world, these powers… what had they cost us?
Ethan was gone. Owen was gone. Was I next?
I tried to push myself up, arms trembling, but they shook violently under my weight like i weighed half a ton. My vision swam, and somewhere far off I heard laughter. A child's laughter, soft and cheerful, echoed in the storm. My arm gave out, my body collapsing back into the dirt. Overhead, the sky twisted in colors that made no sense.
I would die here.
And maybe… maybe that wouldn't be so bad. It would be over. No more running, no more blood, no more watching people I cared about burn away into nothing. I could be with my little one…
No! The thought stabbed through me like fire. Don't think like that. Not now. Not after how far we've come. If I gave up here, what would that mean for the others? What would they think if I just quit?
A scream tore out of my throat as I forced my arms and legs to move. My body shook, my vision blurring with tears and static, but I pushed. And then, just as I felt myself collapse again, a strong hand grabbed my arm, hauling me upright.
I looked up through the haze and met Benjamin's eyes. His face was drawn, sweat and dirt streaking his skin, but his grip was iron as he pulled me away from the rift's edge.
"I've got you," he huffed, dragging me forward out of the clearing. Looking up, I meet the faces of all those who made it, except one.
Just as I turned back, I saw it.
Atlas's left leg vanished. One heartbeat, it was there, the next it was gone, swallowed whole by a rift that blinked open like a waiting trap. His body twisted violently, momentum pitching him sideways. He hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud, dust and light exploding around him. My scream clawed at my throat but stuck there, frozen by sheer horror.
The lightning bird roared, a sound that split the sky in two, and dove.
Its wings were ruined, shredded by the tears, but it could still move. And with one last lunge, it opened its mouth, preparing to consume him.
And then the sky ripped.
A final rift tore open, gaping wide where its head should have been. In one blinding instant, it swallowed the bird whole… and with it, Atlas.