Page 194 of Without a Trace
His eyes darkened. “You already are.”
He looked at me, studying my face even more.
“There were always whispers about the bond,” he said, quieter now. “Warnings. A prophecy hidden in one of the oldest Codex pages—long before you were born. Someone told me it would follow you. That it was your fate. That if it found you… it would break everything I’d tried to protect.”
He exhaled slowly, the mask of control slipping just enough to show what was underneath.
“That’s why I hid you. Why I let your mother raise you far from this. You were never supposed to remember.”
My throat tightened. “And the Hollow Order?”
“They knew someone from my line survived. Suspected there was an heir out there. But they didn’t know it was you. And they sure as hell didn’t expect a bond.”
His eyes darkened. “Especially not with their bloodlines.”
I felt it then—like ice down my spine.
“You mean Trace. Alden.”
He gave the smallest nod. “They think they’re protecting you. But they don’t understand what they’ve started.”
He stepped forward again. Slower this time.
“You were meant to undo the Severance Knot, Scarlett. Not tighten it.”
I swallowed hard, my voice thinner than I wanted it to be. “So what now? Does everyone know?”
He tilted his head slightly. “Not yet. But they will.”
My chest tightened. “Then what the hell does that mean for me?”
His gaze sharpened, the weight behind it almost unbearable. “It means you’re no longer a secret. The moment the bond anchored, the magic remembered you. The old bloodlines did too. And they’re not all thrilled to see you back on the board.”
I blinked. “You’re saying people can feel it?”
“Not people,” he said. “Orders. Bloodline keepers. The ones who study the Codex. The ones who profit off keeping power divided. You changed something the second you bonded. And it didn’t go unnoticed.”
I stepped back, the room tilting around me. “So this world—the one you kept me from—it’s not just shadows and weapons and cryptic rituals. It’s… alive.”
“Yes,” he said. “It’s built on old magic. On blood. On balance. And you just tipped the scales.”
My chest caved in.
The bloodline they fear.
The words echoed louder than the fire, louder than the silence that followed them. I couldn’t look at him. Couldn’t breathe around the truth he just dropped like a weapon at my feet.
I wasn’t just someone they were watching.
I was someone they werepreparingfor.
I turned back toward the window, the glass now fogged with breath. Below it, I saw the courtyard. The garden wasn’t delicate—it was wild, overgrown, violent with bloom. Vines climbed the statues like they were trying to pull them down. Thorns curled through everything. Even the roses had teeth here.
Just like this place. Just like me.
“How long have you known?”
My voice was calm.
