Then, quietly:
“You should not walk alone in the woods anymore.”
“I wasn’t trying to,” I muttered. “I just… needed space.”
His jaw tightened. “Space nearly got you killed.”
I blinked.
That sounded like something Dev would say — but deeper, older, with more grief layered under it.
He noticed my expression and looked away, the faintest flicker of shame crossing his face.
“I am not trying to hurt you,” he said quietly. “But you are… small.”
I scowled. “That’s rude.”
This time he definitely smiled — a slow, warm, devastating thing.
“Small,” he repeated, “but bright. And shiny things attract predators.”
My heart thudded hard.
He meant Ollie and the others.
But something in the way he said predators made me think he meant more than them.
That he meanteverythinghunting me.
Everything I didn’t yet understand.
He leaned back again, eyes softening.
“You are safe with me.”
The words weren’t a promise.
They were a law.
“Who hunts you?” I asked him.
He turned away. “Probably that which calls to you, small one. There are those who seek our particular power for themselves. And some are closer to it than others.”
“Do you mean Marr?” I asked, voice small.
“Marr…” His nostrils flared as if even the name had a scent.
“Dr Marr. From the institute.”
“There are many who would use you to serve their purpose.”
The way he said it — low, rough, almost reverent with disgust — made my pulse stutter.
“Many?” I whispered.
He didn’t look at me.
“Mankind can be a parasite,” Sy said. “Men who scrape power from blood, or bone, or fear. They cannot touch what you carry, so they try to steal the pieces left behind.”
