His voice drops lower, the words thickening. It’s not anger. It’s ownership. A promise sharpened into inevitability.
“And I want it back,” he continues softly. “You help me reclaim what is mine, and I help you end him.” His thumb shifts, pressing harder into my skin. “An eye for an eye.”
The meaning hits me like a stone to the ribs. My lungs seize, my thoughts scrambling to keep up with the weight of what he’s offering. What he’s demanding. The alley feels narrower suddenly, the brick at my back unforgiving.
“You leave them out of it,” I force out.
My voice cracks despite myself, desperation threading through the words before I can stop it. I hate that he hears it. Hate that hefeelsit in the way my body tenses beneath his hand.
His grip loosens, not kindness. Not mercy. Calculation.
His gaze flicks toward the mouth of the alley, where the noise of vendors bleeds in like a distant tide. The scent of spices. The scrape of boots on stone. Life brushing up against the edge of something violent and unseen. His posture shifts, subtle but unmistakable, not cautious.
Curious.
“They’re not who I’m here for,” he says quietly.
Then his attention returns to me, and something changes.
My pulse stutters. The alley feels too small. The air too thin.
And in that shimmering glint of gold, the truth I’ve been avoiding clicks into place.
I know those eyes.
From visions...from nightmares.
He steps forward. I don’t. I can’t.
“You should have listened,” he murmurs, voice dropping to a whisper that threads down my spine. “Time’s almost up.”
Sebastian stops at the mouth of the alleyway, breath unsteady, his wand raised. His entire body is coiled rage, every line in his shoulders, every twitch in his jaw. His eyes flare green, magic igniting as a curse forms silently on his lips.
Blue eyes doesn’t even look up. “You’d better stop him before I do.”
The casual threat in his tone sends my pulse skittering. I move instinctively, not toward blue eyes, but away from him, toward Sebastian. My steps quicken, suddenly desperate to reach him before the curse on his tongue becomes reality.
“Sebastian,” I breathe.
He’s shaking, almost vibrating with the need to unleash something fatal. When my hands slip up to grip the sides of his neck, warm and trembling beneath my palms, he snaps his attention to me with a force that steals my breath. The tension in his arms loosens just enough for his wand to lower. His eyes rake over me, frantic, cataloging bruises and tremors I didn’t realize were visible.
Behind him, Liam and Theo crash into the alleyway, their wands drawn, two points of lethal light aimed directly at the intruder.
“Did he hurt you?” Sebastian asks,voice ragged.
Before I can answer, blue eyes speaks for us, his tone dripping with a smile I refuse to look at.
“No, but I could have, considering how delayed your response was.”
Sebastian lunges.
Not with magic but with raw violence.
The curse is gone from his tongue, replaced with the simple, terrifying intent to break blue eye’s face with his bare hands. I barely manage to catch his wrist, fingers tightening until I feel the strain in my own bones. Beside us, Liam steps in front of Theo, shoulder squared, wand raised, his entire body forming a shield around the blind boy.
“Sebastian, wait.” My voice cracks. “Hear him out.”
Sebastian wheels on me, eyes blazing with something that looks almost betrayed. “Hear him out? He stole you. Dragged you into an alley. And you want tohear him out? Harper, I should kill him.”
