Mysterio's POV
I'd been watching her again.
Not because I wanted to — I told myself that a hundred times — but because something in Aleah had shifted, and I couldn't look away.
She used to walk like she was afraid the world might notice her cracking. Now she moved like she owned the fire that burned everything down.
And Yasmin?
She was the flame's first casualty.
I saw it in the little things. The way Yasmin looked over her shoulder after every whispered conversation. The way her laughter sounded thinner, like she was scared to be too happy when Aleah wasn't around. The way she second-guessed her words, even to Ivy, like Aleah had rearranged her thoughts while no one was looking.
I leaned against the back wall near the courtyard, half-shadowed. My usual post.
Watching. Waiting.
Sage came up beside me, crunching into an apple like he hadn't just skipped three classes.
"You're doing that thing again," he said. "The brooding-in-the-dark act. It's stale."
I didn't respond.
He followed my gaze, then clicked his tongue. "Still on her, huh?"
"Aleah's not who she used to be," I murmured.
Sage shrugged. "No one is. That's the point, right? You break, you rebuild."
"She's not rebuilding," I said. "She's hollowing out. Using people. Bending them."
I watched as Aleah walked past Yasmin in the quad — fingers brushing her hand just enough to make Yasmin flinch and smile all at once. Like she'd been conditioned to think fear was intimacy.
Something twisted in my chest.
"Sometimes," I said quietly, "we think we're saving people… but actually pulling them deeper."
Sage stilled beside me, for once not smirking.
"You're talking about her," he said. Then, after a pause, "Or yourself?"
I didn't answer.
He turned to face me fully. "You're losing your edge, Sander."
I looked at him then, really looked. He was right. About the name. About all of it.
Mystery was just a mask — the version of me who didn't feel, didn't flinch, didn't try to fix things.
But Sander?
Sander still cared.
And caring, I was starting to realize, was the most dangerous thing I could do around Aleah.