The girl was no longer a child.
Lína sat alone in her school library, eyes focused on a book she wasn't reading. Around her, computers flickered. Clocks ticked out of rhythm. The air always felt heavier near her.
She didn't have friends. She didn't mind.
They said she was strange — too quiet, too calm.
She was.
Because every night for the past two months, she had dreamed of a man with silver eyes.
In the dreams, he stood in fire. Behind him — a sky of dying stars.
> "Why do you watch me?" she asked him once.
He never answered.
---
Back in New York, Alec felt it: a pulse. A change.
The curse had shifted. She was awakening.
He picked up his coat and whispered to
no one,
> "It's time."