Darkness.
Not empty darkness.
Living darkness.
Nancy hit the ground hard, sliding across black water that reflected a sky with no stars. The impact knocked the breath from her lungs.
For a second—
she thought she was alone.
Then whispers flooded the air instantly.
Not from outside.
From everywhere.
Inside the water.
Inside the sky.
Inside her head.
LET US KEEP HIM.
Nancy forced herself upright.
"Kai?!"
No answer.
The world around her pulsed strangely, like a heartbeat echoing through reality itself. Massive silver veins stretched across the ground beneath the water, glowing faintly.
The connection.
She was inside it.
A distant scream tore through the darkness.
Nancy ran instantly.
The environment shifted as she moved.
Fragments of memories flickered around her like broken glass—
Kai laughing quietly beside a campfire.
Kai covered in blood during the war.
Kai standing alone in the rain.
Kai looking at her like she was the only real thing left in existence.
Then—
other memories.
Wrong ones.
A child screaming as shadows dragged him away.
A city collapsing beneath silver skies.
Bodies stacked beneath enormous black roots.
Nancy slowed.
Those weren't Kai's memories.
The Veil's.
The whispers grew louder.
HE IS OURS NOW.
The water beneath Nancy's feet suddenly twisted upward.
Hands burst from the surface.
Dozens of them.
Cold fingers grabbed her ankles instantly.
Nancy gasped, nearly falling.
"No—!"
The hands pulled harder.
Faces began surfacing beneath the water.
Eyeless.
Smiling.
Hungry.
"You can stay too," they whispered.
"You're already breaking."
Silver light exploded from Nancy's hands instinctively.
The water detonated outward.
The hands vanished screaming.
Nancy stumbled backward, breathing hard.
Okay.
Good news:
she wasn't powerless in here.
Bad news:
something much stronger noticed.
The entire world suddenly went silent.
Completely silent.
Nancy froze.
Then—
a figure appeared ahead of her.
Kai.
He stood motionless beneath a dead silver tree, head lowered slightly.
Relief slammed into her so hard it hurt.
"Kai!"
She ran toward him—
then stopped halfway.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
The silver cracks had spread across nearly half his body now. They pulsed beneath his skin like living fractures, glowing brighter with every second.
And his eyes—
One was still his.
The other had become pure silver.
"Nancy," he said softly.
His voice echoed twice.
Like something else spoke with him.
She swallowed hard.
"I'm getting you out."
A faint smile touched his face.
"You shouldn't have come here."
The shadows beneath the tree moved.
Nancy noticed shapes standing behind him now.
Tall.
Distorted.
Watching her.
The Veil wasn't hiding anymore.
"You're fighting it," she said.
Kai's expression flickered painfully.
"Trying."
The silver cracks spread farther up his neck.
Nancy stepped closer carefully.
"We can still stop this."
At that—
Kai suddenly looked away from her.
Fear crossed his face.
Real fear.
"Nancy," he whispered urgently.
"Run."
Too late.
The thing behind him moved.
The shadows unfolded upward into something enormous.
Not fully formed.
Not fully visible.
But impossibly massive.
Eyes opened slowly throughout the darkness.
Hundreds.
Every single one locking onto Nancy.
The whispers returned instantly—
louder than ever.
SHE ENTERED WILLINGLY.
The silver ground cracked violently beneath her feet.
Nancy nearly fell as the entire world trembled.
Kai grabbed his head suddenly with a strangled gasp.
The creature was forcing itself deeper into him.
"Nancy—GO!"
She didn't move.
Couldn't.
Because now she understood the horrifying truth.
The Veil didn't just want Kai as a doorway.
It wanted both of them.
Together.