He tried again.
The aura rose, wider than before, denser, the new ceiling of it something that should have been impossible an hour ago, and he drove it inward, wrapping it around the walls of his mind with everything he had. Every layer. Every technique he'd developed across years of pushing his body past the limits it was supposed to have.
SHATTER!
The collapse was identical. NoNo resistance. Just the same clean, contemptuous demolition, like a hand brushing dust off a surface it had already decided was clean.
He tasted blood again.
The same corner of his mouth. He caught it with the back of his hand before it could reach his chin and kept walking, kept his face forward, kept his stride even. Beside him, Lily had gone quiet in the particular way she went quiet when she was watching him without watching him, her eyes ahead, her attention entirely on him. He knew that silence. Had grown up with it.
'Heal.'
