Chapter seven: The Shadow Sent to Watch

Darius had always preferred the quiet.

Not the kind that sat in a room with you like a lull—but the kind that curled around your skin like a second soul. The kind that let you breathe without being seen, let you move without leaving a trace. That kind of quiet was holy.

And tonight, it followed him like an old friend.

He stood just beyond the tree line, high above the valley where Ava walked alone, her figure cutting through the mist like a thread of fire. Even from a distance, she didn’t move like a girl raised in safety. She moved like a flame—deliberate, untamed, unaware of how much light she gave off.

He watched her with eyes that never blinked.

“She’s different,” Darius muttered to himself, voice barely above breath.

The forest around him didn’t answer. But it didn’t need to. He already knew what he’d been sent for.

Lord Elias’s orders had been clear.

Watch her. Don’t be seen. If she shows signs… report. If she strays… handle it.

But what the Lord hadn’t said, what had hung in the pause between words, was the fear. Fear of what she might become. Fear of something old, something born from blood and prophecy.

And Darius—trained to ignore fear—had felt it, too.

He leapt silently from branch to branch, following her path without sound. His body was made for this—honed to be invisible. Every movement calculated. Every breath measured.

But Ava… she was a wild card. Not yet a weapon. Not yet a threat. But close.

She paused near a stream, crouching to dip her fingers in the water. The moonlight caught her face, and something about it—something soft, almost childlike—made Darius hesitate.

She doesn’t know, he thought.

Not just about the watcher. But about herself.

He didn’t look away as she stared into the water’s reflection. He wondered, for the first time, if she ever saw anything staring back—if some small part of her already sensed the fracture inside her blood.

And then it happened.

Her eyes darted up. A sudden stillness, like a deer sensing the wind shift. She turned slowly, scanning the trees. Her hand hovered near her blade.

She felt him.

Darius froze. Perfectly still. He’d studied ancient creatures, hunted spirits, disappeared in cities no one survived. No one ever sensed him.

But she had.

Only for a second. Then she turned back to the stream, shaking it off. But the moment had happened. And that was enough.

“She’s changing,” he whispered, a note of awe beneath the words. “Or remembering.”

He waited until she moved on, deeper into the woods—back toward the old house.

And he followed.

Not just because it was the order.

But because something inside her called to something inside him.

And for the first time in his career, Darius wasn’t entirely sure whether he was the hunter… or the witness to a storm about to break.