로그인** Poppy’s POV **Ronnie doesn’t waste time after that. Blood samples are taken quickly from us all. Jake handles most of it with steady hands and a focused expression, as if he’s clinging to something he understands. Something that makes sense to him… science. I can barely feel the needle. Or mayb
** Poppy’s POV **I mull over Ronnie’s words. Even though I’d already started piecing it together, hearing the words spoken aloud lands hard.Collides… like we’re something dangerous and unstable. As if we’re the problem.My stomach twists. “So what? We just… stay away from each other?”Ronnie’s gaz
** Poppy’s POV **The silence doesn’t last. Footsteps hit the hallway, fast and heavy, then the door swings open hard enough to rattle the frame. Callen steps in first, eyes scanning the room in a sweep before locking onto Paige.“What the hell is going on?” he demands, already moving toward her. “I
** Poppy’s POV **The cracked glass shouldn’t still be holding, but it is.I stare at it, my breath caught somewhere between my lungs and my throat as another thin fracture splinters outward, branching like it’s alive. The water inside trembles, rippling faintly.Leo’s arm is still locked around my
“What?” Leo asks, softer.I hesitate. Because I don’t know how to explain it without sounding insane.“It’s like…” I swallow. “Like everything is louder when I stop fighting it.”“There it is,” the voice murmurs.My eyes fly open.“Stop,” I whisper.Jake’s expression sharpens. “What happened?”“It s
** Poppy’s POV **The room feels too heavy after my outburst. Like my mates and even the walls themselves are waiting to see what I’ll do next. My stomach is still in knots, heat and shame twisting together so tightly I can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. Jake is staring at me like he’s
** Ryder’s POV **The second the car doors shut, the world goes quiet. It’s not a peaceful or relieved quiet; it’s a stunned silence.Paige sits between me and Parker in the back seat, staring straight ahead. She hasn’t said a word since the police finally let us go. Her glow has dimmed to almost no
Paige snorts a laugh. “Honestly? I have no idea. But tell him thanks; that actually helps more than he thinks.”We turn down a familiar street, and my chest tightens painfully. These houses haven’t changed. The same cracked pavements. The same leaning fences. The same park.My childhood feels like a
** Paige’s POV **I feel it before Ronnie says the words, a subtle pull in my chest, threads tightening between me and each of them, different textures, different temperatures.“You are Spirit,” Ronnie says to me, his voice steady. “Not light alone. Not life alone. Spirit is will, choice, meaning. Y
The absence shifts and my head snaps toward the treeline, the Twiceborn all following my gaze with their hackles raised. The hollow I felt earlier… it’s closer now. Still not visible, still wrong in a way that makes my skin crawl, but aware… watching.“Ronnie,” I say urgently. “That thing I felt. It







