Page 83 of Aïdes the Unseen
He looked up again, a hint of a rare, crooked smile ghosting across his face. “Not a person. Just… a fixed point. Something people can use to find their way home.”
I stared at him, every part of me pulling toward that warmth like a tide toward moonlight. That was when the air shifted. It wasn’t dramatic. No lightning. No wind. But thetextureof the world changed.
Graven noticed it too. His jaw tightened the barest fraction, and the puppy rose in a silent motion, ears swiveling like a radar dish.
Then—
“Hope I’m not interrupting anything.” The voice came from just behind me, low and dry and unmistakably amused.
I turned, heart already tightening, to see Lukas—with his shining eyes and smile—leaning against the corner railing, arms crossed like he’d been watching for a while.
He raised a hand in lazy greeting. “But then again, you always did like your dramatic pauses, Graven.”
Graven didn’t move, but something about himsteeled. Not anger. Just preparation.
I blinked. “Lukas?” They knew each other.
Of course they did.Everyoneseemed to know each other.
He straightened with a grin, then looked past me and clucked his tongue. “Still brooding after all this time. Like a dragon’s breath, you’re consistent.”
“Leave it, Lukas,” Graven said without inflection.
“Oh, Iwill,” Lukas said easily. “Just as soon as I visit with Irina, and remind you that you’re not the only one who knows the value of time.”
And then, as if summoned by cue?—
“Hello,loves.”
Oscar’s voice rolled in like sunlight through stained glass, warm and infuriatingly smooth.
I turned to find him rounding a corner with a paper bag in hand along with a to-go cup. He wore another flawless coat, gold-toned this time, with sunglasses perched on his head like he was auditioning for a magazine cover.
“Seriously?” I said under my breath. Had he truly changed in the few hours since he left the Annex?
He beamed. “Miss me?”
Graven rose to his full height, slow and deliberate. “Not now,” he said, quiet but tight. “This isn’t your game.”
Oscar grinned wider. “Sweetheart, I don’t play games. Ihostthem.”
Then the final chill came. “Am I late?” The new voice slithered into the air like a blade slipping from a sheath.
Kassian Harpe. Or… what wore his face walked like he owned gravity. Dressed in a charcoal coat with buttons the color of old blood and his hair wind-swept in a way that looked careless but clearly wasn’t, he smiled at me, even though it didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Fancy seeing you here,” he said smoothly, “Irina.”
Unease weaved through me and sent a chill rippling over my skin. I rose as well, the puppy pressing close to my leg again like a velvet shield. I wasn’t sure which one of us was trembling or if it was both.
Graven stepped half a pace closer to me, not touching—but there.Present.He didn’t say anything, but it felt like a line had been drawn.
Kassian’s eyes gleamed. “Tense? Don’t worry. I just wanted to say hello.”
Oscar let out a breath like a stage sigh. “AndIjust wanted pastries. Look what we’ve become.”
Lukas rolled his eyes. “Can we skip the part where everyone postures and pretends they’re not circling the same flame?”
Graven’s voice dropped low, nearly guttural. “You’re all circling the wrong one.”
