Darkness, dust, and the metallic tang of something ancient breaking free. The world spun around me: Cassian's gasp, Julian's shout, the rumble of the stone as it cracked. For a heartbeat I lay on the cold floor, disoriented, the afterimages of the silver-lit void still flickering behind my eyelids. Then instinct snapped me upright.
Julian was already between me and the emerging horror, body coiled, eyes blazing with raw power I'd never fully seen before. He reached out with a psychic shield shimmering around him, a barrier of golden light that pushed back the dust and debris. Cassian scrambled to his feet beside me, arm extended to help me up, but I was on my own adrenaline-fueled feet in an instant.
