By the time he reached the trees, the warmth had stopped feeling distant.
It wasn't just in his chest anymore.
It had spread.
Jason didn't remember deciding to sit down, but he found himself slumped against the base of a thin tree, bark rough against his back. The ground here was less foul than the pit. Damp leaves. Wet soil. The smell of earth instead of rot.
The object rested in his lap.
It felt heavier now.
Or maybe his arms had grown weaker.
He pressed a hand to his forehead.
Hot.
Too hot.
Rain still clung to his hair and clothes, but beneath the cold surface his skin burned. The kind of heat that made thoughts slow and thick.
He swallowed. His throat felt scraped raw.
The second rhythm inside his chest thudded once, slow and deliberate.
His own heart answered too quickly.
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and tried to breathe evenly.
In.
Out.
The air felt thin.
He glanced down at the thing in his lap.
Its surface had darkened, almost glossy now, as if the rain no longer touched it the same way. When he shifted, it pressed back faintly against his palm.
Not rolling.
Not slipping.
Pressing.
"Stop," he muttered.
His voice sounded distant to his own ears.
Heat surged suddenly from the object into his hands.
He gasped and jerked back, but the heat didn't retreat. It climbed up his arms like liquid fire under skin. Not burning the outside. Burning inside.
He dropped the object.
It landed softly on the damp leaves beside him.
The warmth did not leave.
Jason stared at his hands.
His veins stood out faintly beneath the skin. For a moment he thought he saw something darker thread through them. A shadow where there should not be one.
He blinked.
It was gone.
His ribs flared with pain. Not the bruised ache from yesterday. Sharper. As if something inside them were stretching too far.
He curled forward, arms wrapping around himself.
The second heartbeat grew louder.
Not in his ears.
In his bones.
Thud.
Slow.
Heavy.
His vision wavered.
The trees around him seemed to lean inward. The gray sky between their branches deepened into something almost black.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
The darkness behind them came alive.
Not with images at first.
With pressure.
As if something vast pressed against the inside of his skull, testing.
He sucked in a breath and opened his eyes again.
The forest returned.
But it felt thinner.
Less solid.
He tried to stand and failed. His legs buckled and he dropped back against the tree.
The object lay inches from his thigh.
Warmth radiated from it in waves now. Each pulse matched the slower beat in his chest.
"You're not real," he whispered.
He didn't know which of them he meant.
His skin prickled.
Sweat beaded along his temples despite the cool air. His shirt clung to his back. The damp cloth no longer chilled him. He barely felt it.
Instead he felt… expansion.
Like his lungs were too small.
He pressed a hand flat against his sternum again.
The second beat answered immediately.
Thud.
It shook him.
His teeth clicked together.
A sound slipped past his lips before he could stop it. Not a cry. Not quite.
The air around him seemed to hum faintly.
The hum grew louder.
Or maybe his hearing sharpened.
He could hear rainwater dripping from leaf to leaf farther away. The shift of something small moving through brush. The faint groan of branches rubbing together in the wind.
Too clear.
He dragged in another breath and the smell of wet bark flooded him, sharp and layered. Beneath it, the faint scent of something metallic lingered on his own skin.
His stomach twisted.
He leaned sideways and retched again, though nothing came up this time.
When he straightened, his vision fractured.
For a heartbeat, the trees were gone.
In their place stretched a sky without end.
Black.
Not night.
Something deeper.
Clouds rolled far above him, massive and slow.
Something moved behind them.
He couldn't see it fully.
Only the sherr of size of it was enought to make his skin crawl of fear.
A curve too large to comprehend.
A shadow folding in on itself.
His breath caught in his throat.
The pressure in his skull intensified.
Not pain.
Expectation.
His ears rang.
The second heartbeat grew louder, syncing for a moment with his own.
Then falling out of rhythm again.
The vast sky flickered.
The forest returned.
Jason choked on air and clawed at the dirt beneath him.
His fingers sank in too easily.
He looked down.
The soil beneath his hands had darkened.
No.
Blackened.
Thin smoke curled faintly from where his palms pressed into the earth.
He jerked his hands away.
The smoke dissipated quickly, leaving only damp soil behind.
His heart hammered faster now, panicked.
The other beat remained slow.
Steady.
Unconcerned.
He crawled backward until his spine hit the tree trunk again.
The object beside him pulsed visibly this time.
He saw it.
The surface tightened and released.
Like something breathing.
"No," he said again, but his voice wavered.
The warmth inside him surged without warning.
This time it hurt.
It felt like his ribs were being pried apart from the inside. His spine arched involuntarily. His head snapped back against the bark.
A strangled sound tore from his throat.
He clutched at his chest.
Heat poured through him, down his limbs, into his fingertips and toes. His skin tingled, almost numb at the edges.
The world tilted.
The trees stretched taller.
The sky darkened.
He blinked and saw scales.
Not on himself.
Across the sky.
Massive. Overlapping. Blacker than shadow.
An eye opened above him.
Vertical pupil.
Golden iris rimmed in something that burned without light.
It did not blink.
It simply looked.
Jason's breath stilled entirely.
He could not move.
He could not look away.
The eye seemed to fill the sky.
No hatred.
No kindness.
Just presence.
Weight.
A vibration rolled through his bones.
Not sound.
Not words.
But something that pressed against him with intent.
He tried to speak and nothing came out.
The pressure increased.
The second heartbeat boomed once.
The eye narrowed slightly.
Then—
Everything shattered.
The forest slammed back into place around him.
The sky was gray again. Empty.
Jason collapsed forward onto his hands.
The soil beneath them smoked faintly once more before cooling.
He sucked in air in ragged pulls, lungs burning.
His body trembled violently now.
Not from cold.
From strain.
The object lay where it had fallen earlier.
Still.
No visible pulse now.
No movement.
Only heat.
His heat.
Or something else's.
He crawled toward it slowly.
Each inch felt heavier.
When he reached it, he didn't pick it up immediately.
He stared.
His vision blurred again, not with images this time but with exhaustion.
He shouldn't touch it.
He knew that.
Whatever this was, it was not meant for him.
It was not human.
His hand moved anyway.
He wrapped his fingers around it once more.
The warmth settled slightly.
Not gone.
Just quieter.
The second heartbeat softened, retreating deeper into his chest.
Jason slumped sideways, curling around the object without meaning to.
His breathing slowed unevenly.
The fever did not fade.
It settled in.
Like it had decided to stay.
Above him, the rain thinned to nothing.
The forest grew still.
And deep inside his bones, beneath his own faltering pulse, something ancient shifted and waited.