Sarafina POV
The world didn't explode.
It just… shifted.
One moment I was walking home, replaying Vesper's warning in my head—your blood is worth kingdoms—and the next, something inside me snapped like a pulled thread giving way.
A pressure bloomed behind my eyes.
Warm. Electric. Terrifying.
And then—
A stranger brushing past me on the sidewalk thought,
Pretty thing. Easy target.
I froze.
I didn't hear his voice with my ears.
I felt it, sliding into me like water into cracked glass.
"What…..what the hell? " My breath hitched. "No. No no no no…."
The pressure in my head burst outward. For a heartbeat, the street lights flickered. The ground seemed to hum. The stranger stumbled away like I'd shoved him without touching him.
People kept walking, oblivious. I clutched a bench, shaking.
That wasn't normal.
That wasn't human.
That wasn't me.
My pulse roared, a silver warmth swelling in my veins like molten fear. I tried to steady my breathing, but the thoughts, not mine—other thoughts—kept brushing against my skin, whisper-soft and invasive.
She looks sick.
Should I call someone?
Don't get involved–she might sue you.
I pressed my hands against my ears even though the voices weren't coming from the air.
"Stop," I whispered. "Please….just stop."
Nothing did.
Until..
"Fina?"
I jerked around.
Cassian stood a few feet away, chest heaving like he'd sprinted the entire street. His hair was slightly wind-tousled, his eyes unusually bright, as if he'd followed a signal only he could sense.
Of course he had.
"Why are you here?" My voice cracked. "I didn't… I didn't call you."
"I know," he said softly. "I felt you."
My stomach dropped.
Felt me?
What does that even mean?
He stepped closer, stopping only when he was sure I wouldn't bolt.
"Fina, look at me."
I forced myself to meet his eyes.
And the moment I did—
I saw it.
Just a flicker.
A flash of fear.
Not fear for me.
Fear of what I was becoming.
I swallowed hard. "Something happened," I whispered. "Cassian… I think I read someone's mind."
He exhaled sharply—not shocked. Not confused.
Expectant.
"Fina," he said, voice low, cautious, as if approaching a wounded animal. "You need to breathe. Whatever you felt, it was a surge. It's temporary."
"Temporary?!" I almost laughed. "Cassian, I….I heard him think. I knew what he wanted, what he planned to do. That's not temporary, that's…. that's….."
"Power."
He said it quietly, like the word itself might break the world open.
I staggered back a step, but he caught my arm gently. Not restraining—grounding.
Except grounding didn't help.
The second his skin touched mine, something inside me pulsed again—silver, bright, alive.
His breath hitched.
Just slightly.
"You're burning up," he murmured. "Your energy is… awakening."
Awakening.
Like it was always there, waiting, coiled, watching.
"Cassian…" I whispered. "What am I?"
He hesitated.
Too long.
Too carefully.
"Someone extraordinary," he said finally.
That wasn't an answer.
Not even close.
Another flicker of thoughts brushed me—his thoughts, just out of reach, like a door slammed shut the second I touched it.
But I caught one feeling:
He knew.
He had always known.
And he was afraid of what would happen when I found out.
My vision wavered. "Cassian… tell me the truth."
His jaw clenched. His eyes shuttered. "Not here," he said. "Not in the open."
"Then when?" I demanded.
He looked at me like he was choosing between saving me or losing me.
"Soon," he murmured. "I promise."
Promises.
Everyone keeps giving me promises.
But tonight, my mind wasn't quiet.
The silver warmth wasn't fading.
The world wasn't the same.
And Cassian wasn't either.
Because now I knew— he wasn't just hiding things.
He was hiding me.