The next few days felt like Nova was walking through a house of mirrors. Nothing was as it seemed.
Kane was everywhere. Always showing up at the right time, always watching her like he knew something she didn't. But Nova had noticed something new—his eyes didn't just follow her, they searched her. As if waiting for something buried to surface.
And her brothers… They were suffocating.
"Are you texting him again?" Ryder growled, snatching her phone mid-scroll. "Seriously, Nova?"
"Give it back!" she snapped, lunging for it.
But Max had already grabbed it from Ryder and was reading aloud in a mocking tone. "'Thanks for today. I had fun.' Awww, how sweet."
"Don't you guys have lives of your own?" she barked, snatching the phone back. "I'm not a child."
"You're acting like one," Darian said coldly from the doorway, arms crossed, eyes unreadable. "You don't know him."
"I know enough."
"No," Ethan said softly, stepping forward, eyes worried. "That's the problem. No one does."
That night, their stepfather summoned them all to the study. His tone was calm but serious. "Kane's family has reached out. They're… eager." He looked directly at Nova. "Too eager."
Her stomach twisted.
"What do you mean?" she asked quietly.
He hesitated, then said, "They're already planning the future. It's unsettling. I don't like how fast this is moving."
Nova sat back, mind spinning. Kane hadn't said anything about that. But the messages. The little gifts. The warmth in his smile that now seemed... calculated.
That night, she tossed and turned. Her dreams were strange again.
She stood in the middle of a dark forest, shadows shifting around her. The moon above turned blood-red. From the trees stepped Kane—shirtless, glowing eyes, and a crown of fire.
"Nova," he said, voice echoing inside her skull. "You are mine."
She woke in a cold sweat, breath caught in her throat. It was just a dream.
Wasn't it?
The next morning, something even stranger happened.
While walking across campus, Nova's path was blocked by a new student. A girl she'd never seen before, tall, pale, and smiling too brightly.
"You're Nova, right?" the girl asked sweetly.
"Yeah. Do I know you?"
"No. But you should be careful," she said, the smile still plastered across her face. "Not everyone who says they care… really does. Some just want what's buried inside you."
Nova froze. "What?"
But the girl just turned and walked away.
Nova stood there, shaken.
Buried inside her?
What did that even mean?
Suddenly, Kane appeared beside her. "You okay?" he asked, gently placing a hand on her back.
She flinched. For the first time, she pulled away.
"I'm fine," she lied.
But something had changed.
Kane's warmth now felt like fire licking too close to her skin. Her brothers' warnings didn't seem so irrational. And that girl's words… they echoed louder than she wanted to admit.
Something was happening.
And Nova had the sinking feeling she was no longer in control of her own story.