My hands, steady all day, had begun trembling as soon as I touched the patient's wrist.
A chill crawled over my skin. My throat tightened.
"What's wrong?" Kade asked.
I opened my mouth to answer,but the room warped.
Not physically.
Not visually.
Energetically.
The air thickened.
Sound muffled.
The man's heartbeat thundered in my ears, louder than the monitors.
And for one impossible second, as I lifted his arm, I saw black veins crawling under his skin like ink.
I jerked back.
The vision vanished.
Everything was normal again.
The patient.
The equipment.
The room.
"Elara?" Raven called from the hallway, hearing the commotion. "Everything okay?"
I tried to speak but my tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth.
"I need… a second," I whispered.
I stumbled out of the triage room, gripping the doorframe.
Kade followed.
He didn't look confused.
Or surprised.
Or concerned.
He looked like he'd been expecting it.
And that terrified me more than everything else.
I walked quickly, turning the corner toward the break room, but Kade caught my wrist, gently, but firmly enough that I stopped.
"Elara."
His voice dipped lower.
"What happened back there?"
"I don't know."
"You do."
"No, I " My throat closed around the lie. "I don't."
He studied me.
Slowly.
Deeply.
Like he was searching for something beneath my skin.
Then he said the last thing I expected:
"You've been seeing things lately, haven't you?"
My breath caught.
"What?"
"Things that aren't there. People who disappear. Shadows that linger too long." His tone softened, barely. "Tell me I'm wrong."
I couldn't speak.
Because he wasn't wrong.
Not even slightly.
He stepped closer, close enough that the world seemed to shrink around him.
"I'm not here by coincidence, Elara."
My chest tightened.
"What does that mean?"
He opened his mouth, but Raven burst in suddenly, panting.
"Elara, babe, you need to come right now, there's someone here asking for you. He says it's urgent."
"Who?"
"I don't know. But he said your name like he already knew you."
My skin prickled.
Kade's jaw clenched.
And that same static electricity burst under my ribs again, the same warning, the same wrongness.
The same feeling that the world was shifting beneath my feet.
Raven reached for my hand. "Elara, are you coming?"
I swallowed hard.
"Yes."
But as I stepped forward, I felt Kade's eyes burn into my back.
Not possessive.
Not curious.
Concerned.
Or maybe something more dangerous.
When Raven said "urgent," I expected a frantic relative, a panicked friend, or maybe one of the supervisors wanting signatures for another stack of paperwork.
What I didn't expect was a stranger standing in the middle of the waiting area like he'd walked straight out of a blackout nightmare.
I froze as soon as I saw him.
He looked like he'd been waiting for me.
He stood with his back straight, hands clasped lightly in front of him, like someone rehearsed in patience. His clothes weren't unusual, dark coat, gray shirt, but something about him felt… incomplete.
Like he was a silhouette pretending to be a person.
His head lifted the moment I entered.
"Elara Rhys," he said, voice smooth and unnervingly calm. "Finally."
My name on his tongue felt wrong. Too practiced. Too familiar.
Raven stepped forward without hesitation, blocking me slightly. "Who are you?"
His gaze didn't shift away from me. Not even for a second.
He smiled, if you could call it that. It didn't reach his eyes.
"I've been looking for her."
No explanation.
No introduction.
Nothing.
I forced myself to speak. "Looking for me why?"
"To give you a message."
My pulse kicked. I swallowed. "What message?"
"A warning."
I felt Raven stiffen beside me.
"And what exactly am I being warned about?" I asked.
His eyes, gray, strangely flat, flicked down to my hands.
Then to my face.
"You're being watched."
My skin crawled.
I shot a quick glance behind me, straight at Kade, who had followed us silently. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, eyes sharp and dark and fixed on the man.
The stranger didn't even acknowledge him.
Raven folded her arms. "By who?"
He didn't answer her.
He looked only at me.
"Things have begun moving," he said quietly. "Pieces are falling into place. And you, whether you're ready or not, are standing in the middle of it."
A chill slid down my spine.
"What things?" I asked. "I don't understand…"
"You will," he cut in. "Soon."
Kade pushed off the wall.
"That's enough," he said, stepping toward us, voice colder and deeper than I'd ever heard. "Who are you?"
For the first time, the stranger looked at him.
And something flickered in his expression.
Annoyance.
Recognition.
Maybe even… disappointment.
"You shouldn't be here," the man said to Kade.
"And you shouldn't be in my jurisdiction," Kade countered, jaw tight. "State your name."
The man ignored him completely and spoke to me again, his tone lowering dangerously:
"You are not safe, Elara Rhys."
Raven grabbed my arm, pulling me slightly behind her. "Enough. Security!"
Kade moved in front of me on instinct, posture tense, shoulders squared like he expected the man to attack.
But the stranger simply… smiled.
"Fear doesn't suit you," he murmured.
My stomach twisted. "Leave."
"I will," he said softly. "But you need to know something first."
The fluorescent lights above us flickered,just once, but enough that every hair on my body rose.
"Soon," he said, "you won't remember what it felt like to live a normal life."
I opened my mouth to respond, to demand what he meant,but in the span of a blink.
He was gone.
Not walked away.
Not slipped through a door.
Gone.
Like reality erased him.
Gasps erupted around the room. Raven whipped her head around, searching wildly.
"What the….where…did any of you see which way he went?!"
Kade cursed under his breath.
I couldn't move.
Couldn't breathe.
Couldn't think.
He knew my name.
He knew something about me.
He warned me.
And he vanished into thin air
.
Again.
Just like the man at the bus stop.
My heart hammered against my ribs, panic clawing up my throat.
"What the hell is going on?" Raven whispered, gripping my hand so tight it hurt.
Kade stepped closer, voice calm but firm. "Elara."
I looked up at him.
"We need to talk," he said, eyes locking on mine with an intensity that stole the air from my lungs. "Now."
We moved quickly, me, Raven, and Kade down the hall toward one of the vacant consult rooms. My breath kept coming in short bursts I couldn't control.
I felt eyes watching us.
Not just Kade's.
Not just Raven's.
Something else.
Something I couldn't see.
Something that felt like fingers brushing the back of my neck.
We entered the room. Kade closed the door behind us.
Raven paced immediately. "Okay, what the hell just happened? Who was that? Why did he know your name? Where did he go? How did he vanish like some Marvel villain...."
"Raven," I said, voice thin. "I don't know."
I didn't.
And that terrified me.
Kade stepped closer. Too close. My pulse tripped over itself again.