"The breach happened after you absorbed those prophecy fragments," Rook pressed, his voice rising. "After you messed with forces no one understands."
"Back off, wolf," Zane moved between us, his own anger flaring. "This isn't her fault."
"Then whose is it?" Rook snarled, his canines lengthening slightly as his control slipped. "The Veil was stable before she started collecting artifacts and absorbing prophecies."
"Stop it, both of you!" I shouted, my patience snapping. "This isn't helping!"
My anger exploded outward in a wave of heat that distorted the air around us. Rook and Zane both staggered, their expressions shifting to shock as the wave passed through them. They stared at me, no, through me, their eyes widening in alarm.
"Winter," Rook's voice had lost its anger, replaced by something close to fear. "Your face..."
"What?" I reached up instinctively. "What about my face?"
"It changed," Zane whispered. "Just for a second. You were older. Scarred. Your eyes were glowing, and you had Harbinger tattoos."
The blood drained from my face. "You both saw it?"
They nodded, exchanging troubled glances. Rook moved forward cautiously, as if approaching a wild animal. When he reached me, he surprised us all by dropping to one knee, taking my hands in his much larger ones.
"This isn't you," his voice quiet, more to himself than to me. "Whatever we saw, it's not you."
I squeezed his hands, grateful for his sudden faith despite his earlier accusations. "I don't know what's happening to me, Rook."
Fenric cleared his throat, drawing our attention back to him. "We need to examine you, Winter. The Bureau has specialists who might be able to determine what's causing these fluctuations."
"I'm not going back to the Bureau," I shook my head. "Not when we don't know who we can trust there."
"Then at least let me check you here," Fenric pulled out a small crystal from his pocket. "This will allow me to see if there are any changes to your prophetic markings."
I hesitated, then nodded reluctantly. Fenric approached, holding the crystal over my arm where the blue markings pulsed. The crystal glowed in response, projecting a magical readout into the air between us.
"Interesting," Fenric studied the patterns. "The markings have changed since your last examination."
"Changed how?" I tried to decipher the complex magical symbols floating above my arm.
"There's a new pattern forming," he pointed to a thin, spiraled line that cut across the other markings. "Here. It's different from the prophetic runes."
I twisted my arm to see better, recognizing the spiral pattern as identical to the one burned into my blanket. "What does it mean?"
Fenric's expression was grave as he met my eyes. "I'm not certain. But based on historical records, it appears to be a Harbinger mark."
"A what?"
The room seemed to tilt around me.
"The Harbingers sometimes leave signatures on those they interact with," Fenric explained. "A way of tracking or influencing them."
"Are you saying they're marking me? Tagging me like some animal?" Anger and fear warred within me.
"Or preparing you," Fenric's voice dropped lower. "For what, I don't know."
I pulled away from him, pacing across the room as I tried to process this new information. The spiral on my arm seemed to pulse with its own rhythm, distinct from the blue markings that had become so familiar.
"We need to find Milo," I turned back to face them. "If something's happening with the Veil, he could be in danger."
"I'll try tracking him," Zane pulledout his phone. "The Bureau has location spells tied to all guardian badges."
While Zane worked on that, I retreated to my bedroom, needing a moment alone to think. The burned spiral on my blanket seemed more ominous now, knowing a similar mark was forming on my skin. I stripped off my sweat-soaked pajamas and stood before the full-length mirror, studying my body in the dim light.
