Selena’s POVI watched her sleep from behind the warded glass, the barrier humming faintly under my fingertips.Madeline. Small, fragile in repose, but impossibly bright. Even in the dim candlelight, she radiated power, soft at first glance, but rolling beneath the skin like tidal waves barely contained. It seeped into the air, brushing at my wards, making them quiver as though uncertain of their allegiance.This was not part of the plan.No child had ever held this much energy. No child had ever resisted so completely. Her glow pulsed with life, a rhythm anchored to her heartbeat, yet it was deeper, wider, almost… independent. It made my stomach knot with an unfamiliar unease.I traced the faint lines of her aura through the ward, and the connection snapped at me, almost like a tether I hadn’t tied. My fingers itched to reach through, to claim, to dominate. I pressed my hands to the marble ledge and forced the wards higher, thicker. But even as I reinforced them, I could feel her, in
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