✦ CHAPTER 14 — THE MOMENT I BROKE ✦
Jacklin wasn't in control.
She realized it before I did.
I saw it in the smallest things — the details she normally never let slip.
Her breathing lost rhythm. One inhale came too sharp, pulled too deep into her chest, the next held half a second longer than it should have. Her shoulders rose a fraction higher than usual, tension locking her spine instead of flowing through it. Her weight shifted, heel scraping lightly against wet concrete — not advancing, not retreating.
Recalculating.
Micro-errors.
Tiny.
Unforgivable.
I felt it before I understood it.
She was afraid.
Not of me.
Of the fact that I existed at all.
Her eyes flicked to the sword in my hand.
Then to my face.
Then back again.
The rain kept falling between us, heavy drops splashing against concrete, metal, skin. I could hear it hitting her jacket, hear it hitting Renya's back as he clung to me, trembling.
"…What the hell are you?" she muttered.
The words slipped out uncontrolled. No teasing. No smile. Just raw sound, scraped from her throat before she could stop it. Rain slid down her cheek and into her mouth; she didn't wipe it away.
Her grip tightened around the knife.
Too tight.
Her knuckles went white.
"Your—" She swallowed hard, jaw flexing. "Your fucking blood…"
She didn't finish.
That hesitation — that single, broken second — shattered the balance.
She lunged.
No warning.
No flourish.
Pure reflex — the kind burned into someone who learned early that hesitation gets you killed.
I didn't think.
I didn't plan.
The world folded.
Not speed.
Not motion.
Absence.
No wind.
No sound.
No distance.
There was no between.
One moment I existed — pain screaming through my ribs, rain soaking my clothes, Renya's small weight pressed against my chest —
The next, I didn't.
Inside the absence, there was no direction. No up. No down. Pressure crushed inward from everywhere at once — not physical, not something I could brace against. Conceptual. Like reality itself was asking what right I had to leave.
My stomach lurched violently, as if gravity had been removed and replaced with nausea.
My head screamed.
Not pain.
Error.
Something inside me lagged behind. Stretched thin. Snapped back too late.
Then—
I existed again.
Standing.
The rain resumed around me like nothing had happened.
Droplets struck my shoulders. Soaked my hair. Ran down Renya's back. Sound came back all at once — rain hammering concrete, metal creaking, distant alarms screaming from somewhere inside the hospital.
Jacklin staggered forward a step, blade half-raised, eyes locked on the empty space where I had been.
"…What?" she muttered.
Her breath hitched.
She turned sharply.
Left.
Right.
Behind her.
Nothing.
For the first time, uncertainty crossed her face openly. Not panic — not yet — but the dawning realization that the rules she'd been relying on had shifted without her permission.
Then—
"Hey."
My voice came from directly behind her.
Low.
Rough.
Not human in the way it used to be.
"I'm here," I muttered. "Your eyes are slow."
The words felt wrong leaving my mouth. Like they didn't belong to the person I'd been an hour ago.
She froze.
Every muscle in her body locked at once — neck, shoulders, spine — like her instincts had decided movement was no longer safe.
Slowly — too slowly — she turned her head.
Her eyes widened.
Not rage.
Not panic.
Shock.
The kind that empties a person.
I stood less than a step away.
Close enough that she could feel my breath through the rain. Close enough that I could smell blood — iron-heavy, layered, old and new mixed together. Hers. Mine. Others'.
Her fingers tightened around the knife.
Too late.
The sword screamed.
Not swung.
Released.
It wasn't strength.
It wasn't speed.
It was allowed.
The blade tore the air apart without warning. Space buckled inward along its path — no wind-up, no arc — just a line where reality failed to keep up.
Jacklin didn't see it.
She couldn't.
The impact caught her mid-turn. Her body lifted clean off the ground, twisting unnaturally as rain flared outward—
Hard—
She crashed into the concrete with a wet, bone-rattling impact. Skidded across the emergency bay. Slammed into the ambulance barrier.
Metal shrieked.
The barrier bent inward under the force.
Her knife slipped from her hand and clattered uselessly across the ground.
Silence.
Rain.
Her body twitched once.
Then went still.
Enough.
Jacklin lay crumpled against twisted steel, rain soaking into her clothes, blood blooming dark and fast along her side.
But not dead.
I knew it.
Somewhere beneath the chaos, her fingers moved — barely. Her lashes fluttered once.
Not toward Renya.
Toward me.
Just enough to see the rain.
Her lips parted slightly.
No words.
No sound.
Only a breath she hadn't meant to release — the kind that escapes when something realizes it survived.
Relief flickered.
Then vanished.
The air changed.
The remaining assassins didn't rush.
They learned.
I felt it immediately — the pressure shift, the way the space around me tightened. Shadows repositioned. Footsteps spread wider. Blades lowered slightly — probing angles instead of charging.
They circled.
Waiting.
I moved again.
The world tore.
Absence swallowed me whole.
This time it hurt.
Inside the fold, my vision fragmented. Colors bled into one another. My skull felt too small for what was happening inside it. Joints screamed as if they were being pulled apart and reassembled wrong.
I reappeared behind one assassin and slammed my shoulder into his spine.
It broke.
I felt it give.
But my knee buckled immediately.
I vanished again—
Reappeared too low.
My stomach lurched violently. Vomit burned my throat.
Blood poured faster than I could feel it.
Another jump.
My vision lagged — half a second behind reality.
I misjudged distance.
Badly.
A blade sliced across my ribs where I should've been gone already. Pain arrived late and absolute, ripping the breath from my lungs.
I staggered.
Almost dropped Renya.
"No—no—no—"
I tightened my grip, arms shaking violently.
Renya's small hands clenched into my shirt.
"Kaien…" he whispered.
That sound cut through the static in my head.
Anchored me.
I breathed.
Once.
Again.
My lungs burned like they were tearing themselves apart. Breaths shallow. Uneven. Muscles dropped signal without warning — my left hand went numb, my legs trembling violently.
The sword hummed.
Not stronger.
Unsteady.
Like it was struggling to stay aligned with me.
The assassins closed in.
Slow.
Patient.
This was it.
I couldn't keep this up.
This wasn't strength.
It was something tearing itself apart just to move.
My knees buckled.
My knee scraped against the concrete.
The sound was small.
Ordinary.
And it hurt more than anything else had.
The world tilted—
Then—
Pressure.
Absolute.
Not violent.
Not chaotic.
Final.
Every assassin froze mid-motion. Bodies locked like gravity itself had clenched its fist around them. Rain hesitated in the air, droplets hanging just long enough to feel wrong.
At the far end of the emergency bay, a silhouette stood.
Tall.
Still.
A voice cut through the chaos.
"Oh my god…"
Human.
Breathless.
"I made it in time."
The pressure deepened.
And I collapsed.
Not unconscious.
Not safe.
Broken.
Renya pressed his forehead to my chest, sobbing quietly.
I held him.
And for the first time since this nightmare began—
I couldn't move at all.
✦ END OF CHAPTER 14 — THE MOMENT I BROKE ✦