Chapter 3
Dan could barely breathe. He knew he was gripping Sterling’s shoulder too tightly, likely enough to bruise, but he couldn’t think, couldn’t move—
Malevolent energy swung his way and glowered. Heaviness flattened his existence to nothing. He grew small and insignificant and worthless under the sheer weight of contempt, a spirit who considered him good only for consuming, useless and futile—
His lungs did not work. His heart did not work, or at least he could not feel it beating, crushed by the inexorable ice.
“Oh, no, I’m so sorry,” Sterling said, and his voice held all the notes of the universe in it, a tapestry of thrumming and growing and unfurling life, green and gold and joyous, poignant and broken as a teardrop, a sunrise, a riotous storm. “Someone hurt you, once, very b
