Damian came back to himself on pain.
A sharp, splitting throb behind his eyes—like his skull had been struck from the inside.
His lungs burned, spasming uselessly,still remembering the suffocating void.
Caleb lay half-curled, hands twitching,frost clinging to his fingertips even though he couldn't feel them.Every breath he dragged sounded thin, wrong—as if his body hadn't quite decided to restart.
Ethan pushed himself upright with a hoarse groan,ribs aching where the vacuum had nearly crushed them in.His vision blurred, then snapped into focus with a violent throb.
Marcus didn't look at himself at all.
He only checked the boy in his arms—Neol's face ashen, breaths shallow,a faint tremor running through his fingers as his body tried to come back from the edge.
For a moment, none of them spoke.
They just breathed—ragged, burning, desperate—as the world around them throbbed like a wounded beast.
And somewhere deeper in the dark,a pulse—silver, sharp—answered Damian's heartbeat.
Silence did not end.
It ruptured.