“Still awake?” Will asked. “And... are those cats?”
My fingers were shaking. “I’m a monster,” I whispered.
He stepped closer, worry already written across his face.
“No, you’re not.”
“Then what am I?” My voice shook. “There isn’t even a word for me. I’m not a seer. I’m not like Licia, or like you and Aran. I can heal people—but I can also hurt them. What do you call that, if not a monster?”
“You’re. Not.” Will snapped.
“There aren’t evenmythsabout someone like me,” I went on, backing away like I could put distance between myself and the truth. “There are werewolves, mermaids, sirens… but there’s nothing. Nothing even close. If no one else like me exists, then I’m alone in this.”
Will crossed the room and laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. “You’re not alone. I’m here. Aran’s here. We’re not going anywhere.”
“But no one canhelpme. No one understands what I am. I don’t even know what I’m capable of.”
“And you don’t have to figure it out alone,” he said. “We’ll do it together.”
My eyes snapped up to his. “But you’re scared of me.”
“I’m not—”
“You were,” I cut in. “After the inn, you flinched. Like I wasn’t me anymore. Like I’d turned into something else. Something that frightened you.”
I swallowed hard, my chest tightening. “And that’s still in my head. No matter how hard I try to forget it. The way you backed away from me.”
“I wasn’t scared of you,” he said. “I was overwhelmed. Yeah, I was frightened—but not of you. I’d just woken up in a burning building, Kera. I needed a moment to breathe. It was something I’d never seen before. I’m only human.”
“Yeah.” My voice dropped. “At least one of us is.”
He paused. “What does that mean?”
I hesitated, my throat felt raw, like the words would slice me on the way up.
“That woman, the seer,” I started, but my voice cracked, and I had to try again. “Before she…died. She told me to leave. Said she couldn’t help me anymore.” My arms had folded in without me noticing. I held them tight to my chest, like that might keep everything from spilling out. “She was terrified. Not just startled, like, truly terrified. She couldn’t even look me in the eye.” I swallowed hard. “And I begged her to tell me why. What had changed, said I wouldn’t go unless she did. And eventually… she broke. And she said something. Something I can’t stop thinking about, and I’m scared if I tell you… if I say it out loud…” I looked up at him. “You’ll look at me like she did.”
“I won’t,” he promised. “You can tell me. Please, Kera. You can tell me anything.”
I swallowed hard, but it didn’t help. My voice shook. “She pulled a knife on me, Will. Her hands shaking, and she pointed it at my chest. And she told me… She said that I’m not human.”
Will wiped a tear from my eye before it fell. “I can’t say I haven’t thought about it too. What you are. Why you can do the things you do.”
He gave a small shrug, a sad smile tugging at his mouth. “I don’t know what you are,” he said. “But it’s pretty clear you’re not like the rest of us. We’ve known that for a while.” His mouth twitched, like he was trying to smile but couldn’t quite get there. “Maybe you were born this way. Maybe your father was a werewolf or something.”
He gave a short, dry laugh, almost under his breath.
“Whatever it is… it doesn’t matter. I’m still here. You can’t scare me off.”
I stared at the floor. “She said there are old things in this world,” I murmured. “Things she didn’t want to speak of. Didn’t want to touch. And that whatever’s in me... doesn’t belong here.”
I paused. My throat tightened again.
“Then she told me the gods were speaking to her. Arguing. Some of them begging her to protect me, to help me. But others were ordering her to kill me. And she said... it wasn’t about anything I’d done. It was about what Iwilldo.”
Will frowned. “What, like… some kind of prophecy?”
I nodded.
