The tremor began softly, just enough to make the surface of Elias' coffee quiver, warning anyone sensitive to ether that something was wrong.
The hum in the air thickened, heavy with resonance that made every molecule remember what fear felt like.
Jonathan moved.
The illusion of flesh cracked, and the truth began to seep through, his body unraveling into a mist of fractured ether, pale and luminous but wrong. Where divine energy was meant to pulse in rhythm, Jonathan's bled in reverse, consuming instead of giving.
"You shouldn't have come here," Elias said quietly, his hand flattening over his abdomen.
"And you shouldn't have brought her into this world," Jonathan replied. His voice carried two echoes now, one still his own, the other something hollow, divine, and monstrous all at once. "A child born from human and god. Do you have any idea what she could be?"
Elias's heart thudded, but his face remained calm. "She's not yours."
