Then he pauses, one hand on the frame, and looks back at Nova.
“We’ll continue this soon, Miss Wilder. I have so many more questions.”
The door closes behind him.
Nova lets out a breath like she’s been holding it for the last ten minutes. Her whole body sags, and I pull her closer, both hands on her now, absorbing as much heat as I can.
“What the fuck was that?” Rane breathes.
“That was Silas’s father,” I say.
Everyone goes still.
“That—” Locke stops. Starts again. “That was—”
“Laith Crux. Nightmare Order. High-level. And very, very interested in Nova.”
Nova shudders against me. For a second—just a second—the heat eases. Then I feel it start to climb again.
“He knew things,” she whispers. “He knew about my parents. He was asking about them like—”
“Like he already had the answers,” Beckett finishes quietly.
“This wasn’t about the fire,” Vaelor says. “This was never about the fire.”
No. It wasn’t.
It was about her. What she is. What she might become.
And now Laith Crux knows something is different about her. He saw me touching her. He saw her overheating. He saw the way we reacted when he pushed.
He doesn’t know what he’s looking at yet. But he’s going to keep looking until he figures it out.
I hold Nova tighter and try not to think about what happens when he does.
Chapter 41
Nova
The second we’re outside, the light hurts.
And then I double over.
“Nova—” Kyron’s hands are on me immediately, one on my back, one gripping my arm. The cold of his touch cuts through the heat for half a second before it’s swallowed up again.
“I’m fine,” I gasp. “I’m fine, just—give me a minute.”
I amnotfine.
The heat that was building in that room hasn’t stopped. It’s getting worse. My skin feels too tight, like something underneath is trying to claw its way out. Every breath burns going down.
“Keep moving,” Locke says, low and urgent. “We need distance.”
They form up around me without discussion. Kyron on one side, Locke on the other, the rest falling in behind. We’re walking fast—too fast for how my legs feel, like they’re made of something that’s melting from the inside.
The grass beneath my feet is turning brown. Dying. I watch it happen and can’t make sense of it.
“Uh, guys?” Rane’s voice behind me. “The ground is—”
