I looked up, still stunned—
and saw my stranger from the lake.
And yet… it wasn’t.
His eyes had narrowed to serpentine slits, gold swallowing black.
His jaw had elongated, the bones shifting beneath his skin.
Smoke curled from his nose in two soft, lethal puffs—
not enough to be a threat,
just enough to sayI could be.
Ollie’s aura went dead white with terror.
His hands dropped.
His bowels probably did too.
He paled so fast I thought he might faint.
The others didn’t wait.
They scrambled upright—tripping over roots, tripping over each other—
and ran.
Not with bravado.
Not with curses.
With the sound prey makes when the predator steps into the clearing.
And just like that—
it was only him and me.
He stood with his back to me.
Broad shoulders rising and falling with slow, controlled breaths.
I recognised the jacket.
The boots.
The black hair that always caught the faintest shimmer of silver.
But his aura—
Gods.
His aura shone like black diamonds.
Brutal.
Ancient.
