Nightmares again. The magic is restless. I held her hand until she slept. I think she felt the seal weakening.
She graduated today. Top of her class. She wants to be a detective. It’s too dangerous. Liora would be so proud. I am terrified.
He watched me. He watched for the cracks. He watched for the monsters.
And at the station, he finally saw one. He walked out of that station and went back to the house knowing the safety he built had finally fractured.
I reached the end of the written pages, the rest of the book blank. But tucked inside the back cover sat a single folded sheet of paper. It wasn’t yellowed like the rest; it was crisp and fresh.
My pulse kicked as I picked it up and unfolded the letter.
The crease was sharp,the page torn from the back of a notebook in a hurry.
My hands shook, blurring the words until I pressed the paper flat against the coffee table to steady them.
Dear Selene,
I am writing this because the silence I built around us is breaking. I saw it today at the station. I saw her.
Varessia Quinn. She hasn’t aged a day in hundreds of years. She looked at me, and hunger burned in her eyes. She sensed the power in the room, Selene. I tried to draw her focus, to let her think it was only me, but I don’t know if it worked. I don’t know if I can keep the shadows away from this house much longer.
But I saw something else today, too.
I saw the man standing beside you.
I realised then that I had felt him before I ever saw his face. When you came to the house a few days ago and collected your mother’s books, you were different. The restless fire that has always burned inside you… it was quiet. Settled.
I told you then that you looked better, and I meant it. He haschanged you, Selene. He has given you the one thing I never could: balance.
Seeing you together at the station only confirmed it. The energy in the room… it was already connected. It is running strong between your bodies. I was terrified he would be like Varessia—a creature of hunger. But I felt his shadows. They hold your light. They protect it.
If the worst happens—if they come for me—you must not run. You must fight. And you must trust him.
Whatever happens next, trust the bond. Magic is stronger than anything else in this world, and yours has already chosen him.
Never lower your guard around Varessia. She is the hunger that never sleeps.
I love you, my Little Sun.
Dad.
I stared at the page.
Trust him.
I stopped breathing. The nightmare crashed back: the lab, Eamon’s face behind the glass, lips moving against the roar of the water and the screaming alarm. I couldn’t hear him then. I thought he was saying goodbye. I thought he was panicking.
But looking at the ink on the page, the memory sharpened. I saw the shape of his mouth perfectly.
Trust him.
He used his last breath to give me an order.
I stared at the green leather journal in my lap.He wanted you to have this. He made me promise.
My mind raced, fitting the jagged pieces together. Eamon wrote this letter two days ago. After the station. Before he was taken.
The letter backed up Riven’s story. Eamon told me to trust him, meaning my father handed the books over by choice. Riven went to the house. He spoke to my father while I slept in my bed.
