Sarafina POV
I should've gone straight home.
But Cassian's words kept replaying in my head ; "Call me if anything feels off."
Everything felt off.
The city felt… wrong. Too sharp around the edges, too awake. Like it was listening.
The sun had barely set, and yet the alley leading toward my apartment looked darker than usual, darker in a way shadows shouldn't be capable of. I gripped my bag tighter and walked faster.
Halfway through, a whisper sliced through the silence.
"Starlight…"
I stopped cold.
A figure stepped out from behind a dumpster. No footsteps. No sound. Just… appearing. His silhouette wavered in the dim light like smoke deciding whether to take shape.
"You don't belong here," he murmured. "Not anymore. The veil thins around you."
My throat dried.
He wasn't talking to me like a normal person.
He was talking like he knew something about me, about the fire in my veins I was desperately pretending didn't exist.
"I…I don't know who you think…"
"Your blood sings," he whispered. "And when it does, it calls…."
A soft growl cut through the alley.
Not mine.
I spun around just as a tall, dark figure stepped into the narrow space, quiet but impossible to ignore. My pulse jumped the moment I saw him.
Alistair.
The same man who'd been in my apartment. The one with the too-still posture and eyes that felt like they saw through walls.
The one who'd said he needed to talk… then left me with more questions than answers.
"What are you doing here?" I breathed.
He didn't look at me.
His eyes, dark, controlled, dangerous, were locked on the thing in front of me.
"You shouldn't be talking to her," Alistair said softly. Too softly. It felt like a threat disguised as calm.
The figure hissed, a distorted, broken sound.
"She's waking," it whispered. "You can't stop it."
I took a shaky step back. "Stop what? What is he talking about?"
Alistair's jaw tightened. "Sarafina, stay behind me."
The way he said my name, steady, protective, familiar, made my skin prickle, warm in an unexplainable type of way.
The shadow-thing shifted, its outline rippling like a corrupted reflection.
"She will burn you too, hybrid."
My breath stilled. Hybrid? Burn?
Before I could ask anything, Alistair moved.
Not ran. Not lunged. Moved.
A blur of motion, one second he was several feet away, the next he was between me and the creature, hand outstretched like he was commanding the shadows themselves.
The alley lights flickered violently.
For the briefest heartbeat, as he glared at the creature, Alistair's eyes glowed, not fully, not like a movie effect… just a thin ring of brightness that made the air feel heavier.
The shadow recoiled.
Then it dissolved into the darkness like it had never been there.
The alley fell silent.
My breath didn't.
"What…" I swallowed hard. "What the hell was that?"
Alistair didn't answer immediately. He scanned the alley like he expected five more monsters to jump out. His posture was coiled, furious, protective all at once.
Only after a long moment did he turn to me.
"Are you hurt?"
His voice was steady, but there was something raw beneath it that I didn't understand.
"No," I whispered. "I'm… just shaken."
His gaze softened, barely, but enough to make my heartbeat trip and dance. This is stupid.
"You shouldn't walk alone at night," he said.
I let out a shaky laugh. "Yeah, well, normally men made of smoke don't whisper cryptic things in my direction, so clearly the city is changing things up."
His lips twitched.
Not a smile. Just… the ghost of one.
"Let me walk you home," he said quietly.
"Why?" The word slipped out harsher than I meant. "Why are you always around when something goes wrong? Why were you even here?"
His expression didn't change. But his eyes did, darkening, sharpening, pulling me in like gravity.
"Because," he said softly, "someone has to keep you alive."
A shiver ran down my spine.
Not fear. Recognition.
Like some part of me already knew these words. Already knew him. Impossible.
Before I could say anything else, he stepped closer, slow, deliberate, letting me decide whether to back away.
I didn't.
Not because I trusted him.
But because my instincts did, something traitorous.
They calmed.
"Come on," Alistair murmured. "You shouldn't stay here."
I nodded, legs still trembling, and let him guide me out of the alley leaving behind the shadowy thing that had whispered my name like a prophecy.