Sarafina's POV
The Night Market looked… wrong tonight.
Not in the usual, whimsical "this-stall-sells-cursed-socks" kind of way.
No, this was different.
The air felt thin.
The shadows heavier.
Like the Market itself was holding its breath.
My fingers wrapped tighter around the small artifact Vesper had given me—the orb pulsing faintly against my palm, as if sensing something I couldn't see. Or someone.
I swallowed hard and stepped deeper into the maze of stalls.
Maybe I shouldn't have come alone.
Maybe I should have called Cassian.
Maybe I should have acknowledged the way Alistair's presence last night had cracked something inside me—NO
I shook that thought away violently.
Nope. Not going there.
I passed Vesper's booth first—its curtains drawn. Strange. He was never closed. Not unless something important (or illegal) was happening. A chill crept up my arms.
I kept walking.
A shimmer of silver caught my eye between stalls. Not a reflection this time. Something… watching.
I slowed my steps.
The crowd thinned suddenly, unnaturally, like they sensed something and quietly got out of the way.
The way deer abandoned a clearing when a predator walks in.
My pulse thumped in my throat.
A man stepped out from behind a pillar—tall, lean, wearing a hooded coat.
Not the cloaked stranger from the park.
This one moved like he had training. Purpose. Confidence.
His eyes flicked briefly to my wrist—the faint glow apparent even beneath the sleeve.
That was the moment I knew I was in trouble.
He smiled like he'd found what he'd been hunting.
"Star-veins," he murmured. "Thought you were just a rumor."
My blood iced.
"Sorry," I said, lifting my chin, "I'm not for sale."
His smile widened. "I'm not here to buy you."
Oh great. Because that made everything so much better.
He took one step closer.
The orb in my pocket pulsed frantically—like a warning, a heartbeat, a scream.
I backed up. "Stay where you are."
"Don't struggle," he said calmly. "My boss wants you alive."
"Good for your boss. I don't want your boss."
His eyebrow lifted. "You don't know what you are. That makes you valuable."
A cold sweat broke across my back.
He reached out—fast.
I darted backward, stumbling into a stall.
The vendor didn't even look up.
Of course. Night Market rule #1: Nobody intervenes. Especially when bloodlines or bounties are involved.
The man approached again, voice dropping lower.
"You should come quietly. I won't hurt y—"
A shadow tore across the aisle like a blade.
Something slammed into the hunter, sending him flying across a table. Glass shattered.
He rolled, stunned.
I didn't have to turn.
I knew that presence.
Alistair stepped between us, coat snapping behind him like he had walked out of a storm. His expression was carved from stone—cold, lethal, terrifyingly calm.
The hunter's eyes widened. "A hybrid?"
Hybrid? Again.
Alistair's voice was ice.
"You shouldn't be here."
The man spat blood. "She's marked. There's a price—"
"There's a line you don't cross," Alistair said. "And you just did."
The hunter lunged.
Too fast for a normal human.
Too slow for Alistair.
He caught the man by the throat mid-strike and slammed him into a pillar hard enough to crack it.
The entire Market flinched.
My breath stuck in my chest.
Alistair didn't break eye contact with the hunter as he spoke to me—voice oddly gentle.
"Sarafina. Step back."
I didn't move.
Not because I wasn't scared.
But because the air around him was shifting—darkening, humming, like something inside him was pressing against his skin and begging to be let out.
The hunter choked. "They'll come for her again. You can't—"
Alistair's grip tightened.
"I know," he said quietly. "But you won't be the one delivering the message."
I stepped forward instinctively. "Alistair, don't—"
He didn't look at me. Not once.
But his voice shook slightly.
Just slightly.
"I told you," he said to the hunter. "She's not yours."
The shadows trembled.
The orb in my pocket blazed hot.
And I suddenly realized—
Alistair wasn't the calm, controlled man I thought he was.
He was a storm holding himself together by sheer force of will.
And I was standing at the center of it.