Stellan's quiet laughter fills the car. He doesn't push, doesn't comment. Just lets the admission hang there like the confession it is.
Because it's not about the pancakes. It's about watching her move through their kitchen like she'd always belonged there. It's about the way Langston looked at her—like she'd handed him the sun. It's about how natural it all felt, even to me.
Especially to me.
"She's not what you expected," Stellan says quietly.
"No." The word comes out rougher than I intended. "She's worse."
He waits.
"She's real," I finish.
Not a weapon to be wielded or a threat to be contained. Not a political chess piece or a source of power to be claimed.
Just a girl who makes pancakes with her chosen family and kisses boys in gardens at dawn and carries mist like breathing.
A girl who's already changing everything, whether she means to or not.
The sanctuary boundary appears ahead—ancient stone markers barely visible through the trees. I should feel relief. We're almost there. Almost safe within walls that have protected the Scarborne line for centuries.
Instead, my chest feels tight.
That's when the mist appears.
A single thread of it, silver-green and gold, gliding across the hood of the car. From nowhere. No source, no reason.
I slam on the brakes.
The BMW skids to a stop, and a second later, brakes screech behind us. I glance in the rearview—Jace’s car veering onto the shoulder, the others stacked behind, doors already opening.
They saw it too.
Or at least, they felt it
But the mist is still there, pooling now around the base of the stone markers like it's marking territory.
“She hasn’t even stepped on the land yet,” Stellan murmurs. “And already, it answers her.”
He glances toward the forest beyond the stones, then back to me. “They’ll come, you know.”
I frown. “Who?”
He doesn’t smile. Doesn’t blink.
“The ones who remember what this place was. What it meant.”
He looks at the mist pooling like it’s waiting for someone. “The ones who still feel the pull."
I can't speak. Can't breathe.
She hasn't even stepped on the land yet.
And it's already hers.
And somehow, I think they’ll know.
Chapter 20
