The earth trembled beneath us.

Like brittle glass under tension, the dusk overhead was broken by a silent fracture that swept over the heavens. The earth, the dim horizon, and the sun, which was neither rising nor setting, all trembled with the tension of two spirits fighting inside one body.

Rhys took a step back and paused, his chest rising and falling quickly with each breath. In this environment, his presence was never quite right. This was not his origin; he was not a native. My ...