LOGINLEON'S POVI stared at the photo for the entire length of first period.Not at the composition of it, not at the technical detailsâjust at what it meant. Marlowe Pierce, somewhere across the street from our school at eight forty-seven in the morning, close enough to photograph his brother walking through a door, far enough that Aaron would never have noticed.*He looks okay. Good.*Like that was enough. Like seeing him from a distance, confirming he was upright and moving and walking into a building, was sufficient to settle something that had apparently been unsettled for two years.I thought about what Aaron had said last night. *A P.O. box I send things to that I don't know if he ever picks up.*He picked them up.He had to. Because he knew things about Aaron's life, about me, about the porch light, that he couldn't have learned from the outside. He'd been reading whatever Aaron sent. He'd been present in some form even while being absent in every form that counted.I typed careful
LEON'S POVI sat in the car for five minutes without moving.Just me and those four words glowing on the screen and the distant sound of Aaron's engine starting somewhere behind me, pulling away, his taillights disappearing around the corner without him knowing any of this had just happened.*Keep him safe. Please.*The please was the part I couldn't get past. Not a demand, not an instruction from someone who felt entitled to make demands. A please, small and unguarded, from someone who'd been gone for two years and had apparently spent at least some of that time learning that asking for things directly was its own kind of courage.I looked at the account again. No posts. No followers except me, now, because I'd accepted without thinking. Following only Aaron, who didn't know his brother had found him on Instagram, who was driving home right now to a house with a porch light he'd leave on in case Marlowe decided to walk up to the door.My thumbs moved before I'd fully decided what to
LEON'S POVI turned the phone toward Aaron slowly.He looked at the screen. Looked at it for a long time, his expression doing nothing, which was worse than if it had done something.Then he took a step back, a single, small step, but I felt the distance of it like it was much larger."Aaron.""I know who sent that.""Okay. Who?"He didn't answer immediately. His jaw worked once, the muscle jumping under the skin, and he looked down at the pavement for a moment like he was running through something internally, some private calculation."Reid doesn't take his own photos," he said finally. "He never has. He has someone who does it for him when he needs documentation.""Documentation," I repeated flatly. "He documents things.""It's how he builds leverage. He's meticulous about it." Aaron's voice was low and very even, the particular evenness that I now understood wasn't coldness but control under pressure. "The number won't lead anywhere. Burner, probably. He'll have set it up specifica
LEON'S POVI read it three times.Then I was out of the car before I'd consciously decided to move, the cold hitting me in the face as my feet hit the pavement, crossing the street toward Aaron in quick, unsteady strides."What do you mean it's Marlowe's car," I said quietly. "You said he was gone. You said you didn't know where he was.""I didn't." Aaron's eyes were still fixed on the car, something raw moving across his face in the streetlight. "I don't. I haven't for two years.""Then how do you know it's his car?""Because I bought it for him." His voice was very quiet. "Sixteenth birthday. I saved for eight months." He paused. "I'd recognize it anywhere."I stood next to him, looking at the dark, empty car. A decade-old sedan, unremarkable in every way except that it was here, parked across from Rose's house, which made no sense in any direction I tried to approach it from."He's not in it," I said, stating the obvious, needing to say something."No." Aaron finally moved, circlin
LEON'S POVI read it twice before the words actually landed.*He wants to know where Leon lives.*"Why," I said, my voice coming out smaller than I meant it to. "Why would he need that?"Aaron's jaw had gone tight, his thumb already moving across his phone screen, typing fast.**Aaron:** *Did you tell him?*The reply came almost instantly.**Damian:** *no. told him i didn't know. he didn't push, just kind of smiled and changed the subject. but it felt weird, man. like he was testing something*Aaron set the phone down on the counter, slow and deliberate, like he was trying to keep his hands from shaking by giving them something controlled to do."He's not going to show up at your house," he said, but it sounded like he was convincing himself as much as me. "That's not how he operates. He plants things. He tests reactions. He wanted to see if Damian would give it up.""And if Damian had?"Aaron didn't answer right away, which was its own answer."He likes information," he said finally.
LEON'S POVHe opened the door before I knocked, which meant he'd been watching for me, which meant whatever he had to say had been sitting in him the entire drive over, building pressure.He looked different than Wednesday. Not disheveled exactly, but worn down at the edges, like he hadn't slept either, the composure he wore like a second skin pulled thin enough that I could see the strain underneath it."You talked to him," Aaron said. Not a question."Yeah.""At the library.""You knew.""I guessed." He stepped back from the door, and I came inside, the house quiet around us in the same way it had been Wednesday, except now the quiet felt differentâcharged, waiting. "He likes an audience. He wouldn't have done it anywhere private."I followed him into the kitchen. The book was still on the table, exactly where it had been two days ago, like nothing in this house had moved since. He didn't sit. Neither did I. We just stood there, a careful distance apart, and I realized this was the
LEON'S POVI stared at the photo until my eyes went dry.Then I put my phone face down on my bed, stared at the ceiling for thirty seconds, picked it back up, and stared at it again.Same face. Same cold eyes. Same hand on Aaron's shoulder like a claim.I went to Damian's profile and scrolled back
LEONâS POVI didnât sleep.Not really. I did that thing where I lay in bed for six hours cycling between almost-asleep and wide awake, staring at the ceiling with Aaronâs location pin still open on my phone like it was going to disappear if I stopped looking at it.Come here instead.Iâd typed back
LEONâS POVI answered on the first ring this time.No deliberating. No standing on the pavement counting my heartbeats. Just my thumb hitting the green button before the rest of me had a chance to vote on it.Silence again. But different from before. This one had textureâI could hear Aaron breathin
LEONâS POVI read the message three times.Then I did what any reasonable person would do.I called Rose.She picked up on the second ring, which meant sheâd been waiting, which meant she already knew something was happening even without the details, because Rose had some kind of supernatural frequ







