As if outside of my own mind, I caught the barest glimpse of the horrors that lurked beyond the spreading cracks as they began to ooze out into our world. The whole room felt turned upside down and inside out at once. Nausea clawed over me, and with all the will I had left, I forced myself to tear my eyes away, squeezing them shut as tightly as I could manage.

I pushed to my feet, keeping my back against the pillar and began to slide around it. With any luck, I could place its sheltering structure between myself and the temptation to look into the chaos.

The slamming and crashing and crunching of the theatre falling apart around me were soon drowned out by those now-familiar eldritch sounds of cataclysm—almost musical, but this time multilayered in a psyche-bending symphony—that accompanied the charged air crackling against my skin. It purred at me, enticing me to gaze upon it, but I resolutely kept my eyes closed as I inched my way to the opposite side of the fat column.

But then I stumbled over something, and my eyes snapped open.

Terror shot through me for an instant until I realized I was out of sight of the vortex and still in possession of my mind. I let out a whoosh of relief and looked down to see what I’d tripped over.

A black-cloaked body.

I yelped and jumped back, but then a second later, I realized whose body it was.

Vik.

The floor shook under my feet, and even with the column’s support, I couldn’t stay standing. I fell to my knees beside Vik, and without even thinking, rolled him onto his back. He was dead weight in my hands, and his eyes were closed, his face lifeless. But he was warm. Almost too warm.

I hesitated, but then pressed my ear against his chest. I could hear nothing over the thunderous humming that sparkled the air. I clenched my teeth and concentrated, but then even though I couldn’t pinpoint his heartbeat, I realized after a minute that his chest was rising and falling under my cheek. He was breathing! I exhaled in relief and found myself burying my face against his chest, clutching at the fabric in gratitude before I realized what I was doing. I pushed back abruptly, uncertainty flooding me as I stared down at him.

He doesn’t even look like Vik anymore, I thought. Not really. Not my Vik. He was some uncanny new Vik that had grown up overnight, leaving me behind.