{Take it outside.}
I frowned. 'Outside?'
{Yes, outside your body, genius. Unless you'd prefer it hatching in your chest cavity. Messy, but your choice.}
I rolled my eyes. 'You could just say that instead of sounding like a cursed instruction manual.'
{Where's the fun in that? Now, focus.}
I drew a slow breath and pressed my palm against my sternum. My skin was cool at first, then hot, like touching metal left under the sun. The warmth grew until it throbbed with my pulse, and light began to bleed through my fingers.
A sharp tug ran through me, deep in my gut, not painful, but wrong, like something was being gently unstitched from inside. I grit my teeth and pulled.
The air shimmered.
Something heavy slipped through my hand, and suddenly I was holding it a small white egg, smooth and cold, its surface webbed with delicate blue veins that pulsed in time with my heartbeat.
