Mira POV
Mira hadn't slept.
She'd spent the entire night researching Rowan Ashford on her laptop, down in her apartment in Brooklyn where the walls were thin and the city never stopped making noise. Every article. Every photo. Every expedition he'd ever led.
Explorer. Expedition leader. Finder of impossible things.
The articles called him brilliant. Fearless. Lucky beyond belief. A man who could walk into forgotten places and come out with artifacts that shouldn't exist. A man who built an empire from nothing by finding things that should stay hidden.
A hunter.
That's what the research really showed. Not a thief. Not a casual explorer. A hunter who knew exactly what he was tracking and never stopped until he found it.
Her stomach had dropped somewhere around three in the morning when she read an article from two years ago. Rowan Ashford had led an expedition into the Amazon. Three months later, a temple that shouldn't have existed was all over the news. Artifacts that the academic world thought were myths turned out to be real. He'd found it. Opened it. Changed everything.
And then he moved on to the next impossible thing.
Now he was here. At her museum. Looking for her.
Mira had called in sick to work that morning, which meant she was sitting in her office by noon because staying home would have driven her insane. She'd reorganized the restricted vault three times. She'd checked the security systems twice. She'd pulled up Rowan's file from every angle, trying to figure out what he wanted, what he knew, and how much danger she was actually in.
The answers weren't making her feel better.
By one o'clock, she'd convinced herself he wasn't coming back. By two, she knew he was.
The knock came at 2:47 PM.
She knew it was him before she opened the door. Could feel his presence like electricity in the hallway. Could feel her magic responding to whatever he carried inside his body like a second heartbeat.
But this time she was ready.
She'd changed into professional clothes. Dark blazer. Hair pulled back into a neat braid. Glasses that made her look scholarly and careful. She'd practiced her smile in the mirror. The one that said she was helpful but not interested. Professional but not warm.
The door opened and there he was.
Rowan Ashford in person was somehow worse than on camera. The photos hadn't captured the way he moved. The way he filled a space just by standing in it. The way his gray eyes seemed to hold entire conversations before his mouth even opened.
"Dr. Castellan," he said, and his voice was warm honey. Sweet. Dangerous. "Thank you for seeing me. I know you were busy yesterday."
He was being polite. Making conversation. Playing the part of a curious academic instead of a hunter tracking prey.
Mira kept her expression neutral. "You have me at a disadvantage, Mr. Ashford. I don't recall our last meeting ending with an introduction."
"Rowan," he said, and smiled like they were friends already. "Please. And you're right. I was rude yesterday. I was just so excited about the Prague mirror. Have you had a chance to look into it?"
He was standing in her doorway. Not inside her office yet. Waiting to be invited. Which meant he had manners. Which meant he was more dangerous than she'd thought because dangerous people with manners were the ones who got inside your defenses before you realized the door had opened.
"The mirror," Mira said carefully. "Right. I'm afraid I can't discuss acquisitions. Privacy policy."
"Of course," Rowan said. But he wasn't moving. "Although I'm working on a research project about magical artifacts and their origins. I wondered if you might have come across anything interesting. Forest locations. Ancient symbols. That sort of thing."
Her magic went very still inside her chest.
He was asking all the wrong questions. Not about the mirror specifically but about its origins. About the forest. About symbols. About the things that only someone who knew the city existed would even think to ask about.
"I'm not sure I understand what you mean," Mira said. Her voice was steady even though her hands were trembling beneath her blazer. "What kind of symbols?"
"The kind that appear on very old artifacts," Rowan said smoothly. "The kind that seem to have a language all their own. The kind that, when you trace them with your fingers, you can almost feel them singing back to you."
He was looking at her while he said it. Not at her face but at her hands.
Her hands that were shaking.
Mira forced them to stop. Forced her breathing to stay even. Forced every piece of her training to click into place. Never reveal. Never confirm. Never let them know you understand what they're looking for.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," she said. "Perhaps you've been spending too much time in the field, Mr. Ashford. The mind can play tricks when you're focused on a single obsession for too long."
His expression shifted. Just for a second. A flicker of something that might have been admiration or might have been hunger. Then it was gone and he was smiling again.
"You're probably right," he said. "Although I have to say, the energy in this museum is remarkable. Did you feel it the moment you started working here? Like something underneath everything is calling out?"
Mira's magic screamed inside her.
He could feel it. Not just sense it. Feel it. The way the city's ancient power was seeping through cracks in reality, bleeding into the world through the vault she'd been protecting for eighteen years. And he could hear it calling to him because whatever he was, whatever the Council had made him, he was answering that call.
"I don't feel anything," Mira lied. The lie tasted like ash. "It's just a building."
"Is it?" Rowan stepped closer. Not threatening. Just moving into the space between them in a way that made her breath catch. "Because I feel something very specific. I feel it in my bones. I feel it in my blood. And I feel it responding to you."
Mira's magic trembled inside her chest. Reached out toward his like recognition. Like coming home.
She pulled it back sharply, locking it down, forcing it into submission.
Rowan's eyes snapped to her face. His expression changed. Sharpened. Like he'd just seen something he'd been looking for.
"You know something," he said. It wasn't a question anymore. "About where that mirror came from. About the forest. About what's underneath this museum. You know."
Mira's heart was racing. Her magic was burning under her skin demanding to be let loose, demanding to fight, demanding to do something other than stand here and pretend to be human.
She opened her mouth to deny it. To lie again. To do what she'd been trained to do her entire life.
But Rowan leaned forward and his eyes held hers and there was something in that moment that felt like the entire world shifting on its axis. Like the universe was holding its breath waiting to see what she would do next.
"You know something about where that came from, don't you?" he said quietly. His voice was different now. Not the smooth honey voice anymore. Something underneath it. Something real. "And you're terrified of what happens when I find out what it is."
Mira couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't do anything but stare at this man who had broken through her defenses without even trying. This man whose presence was making her magic come alive in ways that made her want to scream and fight and run all at the same time.
"Leave," she whispered. "Before I make you."
"No," Rowan said. And he was smiling again but it was a different smile now. Not a hunter's smile. Something sadder. Something that looked like regret. "Because whatever you're protecting is more important than your safety. And I need to know why."