CHAPTER 4

Amara

The door wasn't just wood anymore. It was a space, and a man was stepping through it. His face was like a grin, big and easy, but his eyes were laughing at some secret only he knew. Something about whatever was going to happen right now felt like a joke to him. Behind him, another man stood. He was just quiet.

"Well, hello there," the grinning one said, his voice soft. "Quite a night for a visit, eh?"

I looked at him, then at the silent one. My insides got all tight, but my face felt still.

"What do you want?" I asked. My voice came out flat.

The grinning man took another step inside, just enough to be over the threshold. "Straight to it, I like that. We're here for you, sweet pea."

I didn’t even blink. "No."

His grin got wider. It wasn't a mean grin, or even a happy one. It was... pleased. "Oh, a 'no,' is it? That's always more fun."

The silent man, who hadn't moved a muscle, spoke then. His voice was deep. "We are taking you." 

My eyes snapped to him. No, I thought. Not again. Not how it always felt before. My blood buzzed, a familiar panic, but this time it wasn’t dull. This time, I could feel the old lives trying to break through, and I pushed them down. I had a choice now. Maybe.

"I said no," I repeated, louder this time. I looked at the grinning man. "You understand 'no,' don't you?"

He chuckled. "Oh, completely. My friend here just doesn't much care for it." He nodded at the quiet one.

I didn't wait. My brain was already running. The back door. Always the back door. I spun, my skirt flaring as I bolted through the small kitchen, past the cold hearth, towards the back of the house. Barely three steps.

And then he was there.

The silent man. Standing in front of the back door. Just… there. I skidded to a stop, my breath catching in my throat. How? I hadn't heard him move.

Up close, his eyes were very dark. Not just black dark, but like a deep, deep well. And in them, just for a second, I saw something. A flicker. Something I knew, but didn't know how I knew it. It flared, hot and sharp, and I felt my breath hitch. Not the moment, I told myself. Not now.

The grinning man walked into the kitchen now, slow and easy, like he was just taking a stroll in the woods. "Bit of a stubborn one, aren't you?" he said, like he was proud of me.

I gripped my hands together. No begging. No crying. I knew how that ended. I’d done it before. Too many times. This time, I was going to try something different.

"There's a man coming for me," I said, my voice steady. "A bad one. The worst. If you take me, you inherit that problem. He won't stop. Ever."

The silent man just looked at me. His face didn't change at all.

Then he said, "Good."

It was just one word. Everything I thought I knew about what was happening, about these men, about me, just… shattered. Recalibrate, my old brain told me. Everything is different. They wanted trouble? They wanted him?

"He won't just kill you," I warned them, trying to make it sound real, trying to make them understand. "He'll make you wish you were dead first. Really wish it."

The grinning man finally stopped by the kitchen table, running a finger along the worn wood. "We understand. And we're not afraid. That's why we're here."

My head tilted. "Why?"

"Because we choose our problems.," the silent one said, his voice flat. He didn't explain. He didn't feel like he needed to. "So, you can come easily, or you can come interestingly. Either works. We're not going to hurt you, sweet pea. That's not the plan."

I stared at him, trying to find the lie. My eyes darted over his face, his easy posture, the way his hands stayed loose at his sides. I’d learned how to read people, really read them.

He was telling the truth. About not hurting me.

He really meant it. The grinning man. He didn't want to hurt me.

I didn't know what to do with that. A man who just... meant what he said. So plainly.

I looked at the house around me. The small, cold main room. The dark kitchen. The dusty corners. This was the life I had been cleaning up after for nineteen years. The same old walls that had held me since I was born. Corvus was coming, and my plan, the one I’d been making for years, the one to disappear into the deepest woods and just be gone... that plan had holes. Big ones.

These men were something I didn’t understand.

Not like anyone I had ever known.

Not like anyone from any life. The cold certainty of the quiet one, the cheerful honesty of the grinning one. They promised no harm. And they didn't fear Corvus.

A strange feeling bloomed in my chest. A humiliating awareness that part of me wanted to go. Wanted to choose this unknown, this big, scary, different thing, over waiting for the known danger of Corvus to arrive and shatter my world yet again. It wasn't logic. It was something deeper. Something foolish.

I straightened my shoulders, feeling a new kind of strength. I met the grinning man's eyes first, then flickered to the silent one. "My terms," I said, my voice clear. "You touch me without my permission, and you'll regret it. I'll make you regret it."

A slow grin spread across the first man's face. "Heard you, sweet pea."

The silent man just turned. He moved for the only door left, the front one, the one I’d come through when I tried to escape. He just assumed I’d follow. And I did. I told myself it was the only logical choice.

I stepped through the door I was born into and did not look back. Ahead of me, the grinning man was already talking, his voice a low rumble about the journey. "Hope you are ready, because we've got quite a trek ahead of us." Behind me, I could feel the silent man's presence, not close enough to touch.

High above us, the moon was huge and white and full for the first time in weeks. It felt like it was watching us. It felt like something huge was finally starting, and for the first time in three lifetimes, I didn't know how it was going to end.