Theron noticed it first… the change.
The coldness that began to seep from Aveline was not the kind born of anger alone. It was deeper, heavier, as though something beneath her skin had stirred awake. Her beautiful blue eyes darkened, the color deepening into something almost unnatural, something that did not belong to a girl standing in the middle of a marketplace.
And then came the rest of it.
It was not visible, not in a way others could point at and name. But he could feel it. No… he could see it, in the way one sees heat rising from stone under a merciless sun. Something warped the air around her, a subtle distortion that curled outward, slow and deliberate, like a presence stretching after a long slumber.
From the corner of his eye, he caught Kael going still.
He had noticed it too.
Theron's jaw tightened slightly. Kael had already called her a curse once. He did not need more reason to believe it.
This needed to end. Now.
The thought came sharp and immediate.
