The figure stepped closer, rain sliding off his coat in thin silver streams. Liora backed up until her spine pressed against the gate.
"Stay away," she warned, though her voice shook.
"If I wanted to harm you," he said calmly, "the shadow outside would have finished the job. I pushed it back."
The whisper inside her head hummed in agreement — but faintly, like a conscience made of broken echoes.
Liora swallowed. "Who are you?"
"I go by Kael," he said. "And you… you're late."
"For what?"
"For waking up."
He stopped a few feet away, close enough for her to see him more clearly. His eyes weren't glowing — not exactly. They were fractured, like someone had taken a constellation and snapped it into pieces, each shard drifting gently inside his irises.
"You saw that thing," Kael said. "The shadow that tried to take you. That means your Sight has returned."
"My… Sight?" Liora shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The whisper slid across her mind again, gentle this time:
"Not true…"
Kael watched her reaction. "You hear it, don't you? The voice. The one that's been silent for years."
Liora's hands curled into fists. "That thing isn't a voice. It's— it's something in my head."
"It's not in your head," Kael said softly. "It's yours. A part of you. The part that sees what shouldn't exist."
She stared at him, rain blurring her lashes. "Why now? Why after all this time?"
"Because the boundary is thinning again," he said. "And some creatures can smell Sighted people like they smell blood."
She shivered. "That shadow… what was it?"
"One of the Glassless. Creatures born from reflections that never found a body. They hunt warmth, memories… and anyone who can see them."
He glanced toward the street; the lights were still dead, drowned in darkness. "More will come. They've felt you wake."
"I didn't wake anything."
Kael's fractured eyes softened. "You don't remember the night you sealed your Sight away, do you?"
She shook her head.
"I wouldn't expect you to. You were eleven. And terrified."
A sharp ache shot through Liora's skull, like a memory trying to claw its way back. Something cold. Something bright. Someone screaming—
She sucked in a breath, staggering.
Kael steadied her carefully. "Easy."
"I don't…" She pressed a hand to her temple. "I don't want to remember."
"You may not have a choice," Kael said. "But you also don't have to face this alone. Come with me."
"Where?"
"To a place where shadows can't trespass."
"And if I say no?"
Kael tilted his head. "Then you try to walk home alone… and the Glassless find you before sunrise."
The whisper in her head chimed:
"Go with him… trust…"
Liora exhaled shakily. Every instinct told her this night was the beginning of something she had spent years running from without knowing why.
"Fine," she said. "Lead the way."
Kael nodded once, turned, and pressed his palm to the brick wall of the alley.
The bricks rippled like disturbed water.
A doorway of shimmering glass unfolded outward — silent, impossible, waiting.
"After you," Kael said.
Liora stepped inside.
And the world shattered into light.