LOGINEmily POVI could not stop thinking about what I had felt.Even after Lucas carried me back to our room.Even after he sat beside me for almost an hour, refusing to leave until he was sure I was alright.Even after I promised him three different times that I was not about to collapse.My mind would not let it go.The others.That was what scared me.Not the creature we had just destroyed.The others.The moment that thing disappeared, I had felt something.A reaction.Like ripples spreading across water.Like distant eyes suddenly opening.I knew it sounded crazy.But it was true.Somehow, I knew they had felt it.And somehow...They now knew where I was.I sat by the window while dawn slowly approached.The sky was turning gray.Birds were beginning to sing.Everything looked peaceful.Normal.But nothing about my life was normal anymore.A few weeks ago, I had been planning a wedding.Now I was apparently some ancient power carrier who was attracting monsters from underground.I lau
Emily's POVI knew something was wrong the moment Lucas carried me back to our room.My body felt weak. It was as though something inside me had been stretched too far.I could still walk if I forced myself to.I could still speak.But every part of me felt drained.Lucas did not let me take a single step on my own.The moment we entered the room, he carried me straight to the bed and sat beside me.His face was tense.His jaw was locked tightly.I could tell he was trying not to show how worried he was.Unfortunately for him, I knew him too well now."You should rest," he said.I smiled weakly."You have said that at least ten times tonight.""I'll say it another ten."That actually made me laugh a little.The laugh quickly faded when I remembered what had happened in the hallway.The shadow.The connection.The way it had felt.I looked down at my hands.They looked normal.Completely normal.Yet I could still remember the feeling.It had not been a conversation.Not exactly.But so
Lucas POVI stood there for several seconds with Emily weak against my chest while the corridor remained completely still around us. The lights had stopped flickering, the shaking had ended, and the cold pressure in the air was finally gone, yet none of it made me relax. If anything, the quiet made my thoughts louder. Emily’s words repeated themselves inside my head.The others felt it too.That meant they were connected somehow.Not by sight.Not by sound.Something deeper.Something worse.I tightened my arm around Emily carefully and looked down at her. Her face had gone pale, and there was sweat gathered near her forehead despite how cold the corridor had been moments ago.“You need to sit down,” I told her quietly.“I’m fine,” she whispered immediately.“You can barely stand.”“I said I’m fine.”Her voice was weak, but stubborn enough to almost make me sigh. Even exhausted, she still tried to fight everything alone.I bent slightly and lifted her into my arms before she could pro
Lucas POVI was still holding Emily when the last trace of that thing disappeared, but my mind had already moved ahead of the moment. Her words kept repeating in my head. They felt it too. That was not just a warning. It was a fact. Whatever those things were, they were connected in a way we did not fully understand yet, and by destroying one of them, we had just sent a message to the rest.I tightened my hold on her slightly as I looked down at her face. She looked drained, far more than she had earlier. Her eyes were still open, but there was a dullness in them that had not been there before. It was not weakness. It was exhaustion. Deep exhaustion, the kind that came from something more than just the body.“Emily,” I said quietly.She blinked slowly and looked up at me, her lips parting slightly as if she wanted to speak, but nothing came out at first. I could feel her breathing against me, uneven now, like her body was trying to catch up with what had just happened.“You need to re
Lucas POVI stood there for a few seconds longer, still holding Emily in my arms, my eyes fixed on the spot where the shadow had been. Nothing remained. No mark, no trace, nothing to show that something unnatural had just existed there. But I knew better than to trust what I could see. The absence of something dangerous did not mean it was gone. Sometimes it only meant it had moved.Emily’s weight shifted slightly against me, and I looked down at her. Her eyes were still open, but they were heavy now, her strength drained from whatever she had just done. Her breathing was slow, uneven, like her body was trying to catch up with what had just happened.“We need to get you back,” I said quietly.She nodded faintly, but she didn’t speak.I did not wait any longer. I lifted her properly into my arms and turned back down the corridor. The guards moved out of the way immediately, their eyes filled with questions they did not dare ask. I ignored them. Right now, nothing mattered more than get
Clarisse POVI felt it even before anyone came to tell me anything. I felt it deep inside me like a sharp pull that refused to be ignored. It was not pain, not exactly, but it was close enough to make me sit up from where I had been lying. My chest tightened as something heavy pressed against my senses, something familiar yet wrong at the same time. I had felt it once before, long ago, in whispers and fragments, in the stories I was never meant to fully understand. And now it was here again.“They’re moving,” I whispered to myself.My fingers curled slightly against the bed as I tried to focus on the feeling. It was faint, but not gone. Something had just happened, something strong enough to ripple through whatever connection existed between them. The failed ones. The empty ones. The ones that should never have been allowed to exist in the first place.Emily.My jaw tightened at the thought of her name.Of course it was her.Everything always came back to her now.I pushed myself up s
Emily's POVI don’t know how long I sat there after Joe left. My body ached in places I didn’t know could hurt. My head throbbed where dried blood clung to my hairline, and my throat burned from screaming until my voice gave up on me.Joe’s words replayed over and over in my mind."You’re not going
Emily's POV I had not expected guilt to be the loudest thing in my head. I sat by the window in Lucas’s room, my knees pulled to my chest. Clarisse’s face wouldn’t leave my mind.I wrapped my arms tighter around myself.If I was honest, painfully honest, I knew why she hated me so much. I had walk
Lucas POV For a moment, all I could do was stand there and watch. The room was frozen. Music still played faintly from the speakers, absurdly cheerful against the tension that was now evident. Heads turned from Emily to me, then to Clarisse but no one spoke.Clarisse was the first to move.She ga
LucasLater that evening, the house felt too quiet. The party mess had been cleared, and the guests chased out.I left Emily asleep under heavy guard. She had cried herself into exhaustion, clinging to my arm like she was afraid I would disappear if she let go. I had sworn to her that I would bring







