The streetlamp outside flared, then dimmed.
Something moved beyond the glass, where there shouldn’t have been movement—shadows gathering like they’d been called.
Owen swore under his breath.“Piper—look at me.”
I tried.I tried so hard.
My vision tunneled, the compulsion dragging my attention back to Garrat’s voice like a leash.
“You can’t fight a pull you don’t understand,” he said kindly.“Not yet.”
He stepped closer.Close enough that the cold in the room felt like it had teeth.And then—
“Stop.”
The word cracked through the darkness like a whip.
The pressure holding me in place snapped.I jolted, gasping, as my muscles remembered how to work.
For a heartbeat I couldn’t see anything but him—his halted hand, his smile frozen—
Then I became aware of the woman standing beside him.
She had not arrived loudly.There was no flash of light, no crack of thunder.
She simply was.
Full-size Tani stood there, her dagger in hand ready to attack.Her eyes were fixed on Garrat.
“Honestly,” she drawled, inspecting the scene like she’d wandered into a mess at a party.“Could you be any more dramatic?”
Garrat’s expression barely shifted.But I felt it—his attention flicked to her like a blade turning.
“You again,” he said.
“And you,” Titania replied sweetly.“Still skulking.Still sniffing around other people’s thresholds.”
She glanced at Owen—pinned in place, breathing hard—and made a face.“Rude.”
Owen’s jaw clenched.“If you’re here to critique—”
“I’m here because something in this quaint little shop screamed across realms,” Tani said, and her gaze snapped to the grimoire.“And I hate when humans ring bells they don’t know how to un-ring.”
My pulse hammered.“He—he was—”
“Trying to test you,” she said flatly.“Trying to see if the book answers you.”
Garrat’s smile returned, slow and pleased.
“She’s awakening,” he murmured.“I simply came to confirm.”
Tani’s eyes flashed.
“Oh, darling,” she purred.“You don’t get to confirm anything in my orbit.”
She lifted her hand—two fingers, lazy, like she was flicking dust from a sleeve—
—and the air tightened around him.
