Book Six: Chapter 162

Mike snagged one of Jack’s outstretched hands just as the ground vanished beneath them. His fingers locked around her wrist with bruising force, and a heartbeat later all three of them were falling—Jack, Mike, and the fragment of Freya still bound to her soul—plummeting toward the roaring black waves far below.

Wind screamed past them, tearing at clothes and hair. Jack barely had time to register the horizon spinning wildly before golden light erupted around both her and Freya. It flared brighter with every second, the distance between them collapsing as if space itself were folding inward. Jack felt a violent tug deep inside her chest, a sensation like being stitched together with molten thread.

The two lights collided.

For a brief, blinding instant, Jack ceased to be singular.

When they struck the water, it didn’t behave lik