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I grunted. It was difficult to keep up with Paul’s string of girlfriends.

Emma stiffened. “We’re being followed.”

My senses were extended, and I hadn’t noticed anything amiss. I frowned, wondering what had spooked her. Then I felt Kara’s power, at the limit of my range, fifty yards behind us. That’s when I realized she’d been there all along, like a familiar background hum.

“It’s just Kara,” I said. “Maybe she’s heading the same way and doesn’t want to get too close.”

“Doesn’t she live in Griffin House?”

I shrugged. If she did, she was headed the wrong way. “Maybe she’s visiting a friend.”

“I suppose.”

We reached Emma’s apartment block and paused by the door.

“Would you like to come up?” she asked, the earlier hint of nervousness back in her voice.

“Er …” It’s late already. It’s been a busy night. You’re a lovely girl, but …

She smiled, tired and a little wounded. “Forget it. Just thought I’d ask.”

I sighed, knowing I owed her more than that, but still not sure what I could say. “This is going to sound like a shit line, but … I’m going through some complicated stuff, and this isn’t the right time for me to hook up with anyone.”

“I understand,” she said, in a tone that made it clear she didn’t. I couldn’t blame her for that.

“Look, I genuinely want to be friends with you. You’re always so positive, so bubbly and kind. Can’t we find you a nice centaur to rock your world?”

She made a face. “Centaur?”

“I thought all the girls liked centaurs.”

“Some things are better left to fantasies.” She went up on her toes and kissed my cheek. “Good night, Xan.”

“Good night.”

I waited until she’d walked inside, then turned around.

Kara had stopped fifty feet back, in the gloom between two streetlights, dimly lit but visible.

The corset might’ve been fine inside, but out here, just looking at her made me feel cold.

She glanced away when she saw me watching, chewing her lip.

“Want me to walk you home too?” My voice carried in the quiet night.

She scowled, one hand on her hip, refusing to acknowledge me or that I’d spoken.

I shrugged and turned away, heading toward the apartment I shared with Paul. Whatever her issue was, I had more important things to figure out tonight.

The scuff of her boots on the path behind me let me know she was still following. That, and the sense of her powers still at the edge of my range.

I stopped after a hundred yards and leaned against a streetlight to see if she’d approach. She stopped too, folded her arms across her chest, and refused to look my way.

Fine.

As it was obvious she wasn’t coming any closer, I pushed off the streetlight and walked toward her. She twitched as if she wanted to retreat, but didn’t move.

“What’s your problem? Still bitter about saving me from the wolves?”

A flicker of emotion crossed her face. Surprise? Concern? It was too dark to be sure.

“I’m … just …” She kicked a stone, sending it skittering across the path. “I can’t wait for this fucking night to end, and whatever it is that you’ve done—whatever someone has done—fades away. Master .” She added the last with all the venom she could muster.

“I’m not sure that word means what you seem to think it does.”

She gave me a look most people reserved for rats.

The truth was, it was me that had caused whatever had happened—I could still feel the tether, as strong as before.

Why she was here was another question altogether; as far as I knew, I hadn’t told her to follow me.

But then, I hadn’t told her to defend me, either.

This is why I needed the time—I was as much in the dark as she was.

Except I wasn’t the one being compelled.

“Do what you want,” I told her. “I’m done here.”

Her nostrils flared, jaw tight. A stubborn set to her mouth, a glare that could gut you. Undeniably attractive, but not the kind of beauty that smiled for attention. Gorgeous, yes—but with edges.

I turned away, leaving her to it. I preferred women who carried their beauty without flaunting it, not ones like Kara, who expected the world to fall at their feet because they had good genetics.

She kept pace, a shadow ten yards back.

“Why are you following me?” I kept walking, not turning around.

“I don’t know, damn it. You told me to do what I want … and inexplicably, what I want is to follow you.”

“Haven’t you got somewhere else to be?”

“Of course I have! You think I want to be following after you like a … lovesick puppy ?” The venom she managed to convey made me wonder if she was half-naga.

I stopped and faced her. “First you say you do, now you don’t. Which is it?”

“I don’t know! I don’t want to be here—I just … can’t not be.” She gave a muttered fuck . “I just need to know you’re safe, Master. Maybe it shook me more than I thought, watching those wolves coming for you.”

I raised an eyebrow. That was unexpected. Perhaps she had some depth after all. And this time she hadn’t said ‘master’ like she wanted me to drop dead in front of her.

She seemed to hear what she’d said, and scowled. “Don’t make anything of it.”

Her depth hadn’t lasted that long. “Well … okay then.” I gestured with my head. “My apartment block’s over there.”

“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes.

Her newfound empathy hadn’t lasted long. I shook my head and resumed walking, ignoring her footsteps.

The apartment block had a keypad entry. I punched in the code with my body hiding the numbers, then pulled open the door. “Good night, Kara.”

She didn’t say anything as I walked in.

I was halfway up the steps when she jammed her foot in the closing door, then pulled it open and stepped inside.

She cursed under her breath when she saw me watching and refused to meet my eyes, standing stiffly on the threshold like she hated herself for coming in.

The lights clearly showed the flush in her cheeks.

“Coming up?” I asked, amused, not sure why she was still following me if she didn’t want to. Despite how easily she’d dealt with Conrad and his wolves, I didn’t feel any threat from her. Besides, she’d had plenty of chances to attack me.

She muttered as she began to climb the steps after me, and by now I was resigned to her seeing me to my door. Maybe then we’d both get some space and put this behind us.

“Goodbye,” I said, stepping into my apartment on the third floor, the door closing behind me with a welcome sense of finality to the evening’s events. If Kara replied, I didn’t hear it.

I chucked my keys in the bowl by the door and flopped down on the couch. Paul wouldn’t be back for hours, if at all, so I had the peace and quiet I needed.

Closing my eyes, I turned inward, exploring the new power that had inexplicably arrived this evening. Maybe Kara was right; maybe this was a freak of the thinning veil of Halloween, and when I awoke tomorrow, all would be back as it had been.

But I didn’t really believe that. This Halloween was different somehow, with no clue as to why.

The thinning of the veil referred to the boundary between the physical and supernatural worlds.

Was it a coincidence that different cultures throughout time had been convinced that, on this night, the dead were that much closer?

The supes knew there was more to it than that, even if we couldn’t explain it.

For this one night of the year, our power was stronger, more chaotic, more unpredictable.

And it was my birthday. Maybe that had some bearing on it, somehow.

The new power coiled in my chest, cold and deliberate, like black smoke trapped under glass. The tether to Kara remained, strong and strange—but beyond that, nothing. No sense of what it wanted. No clue what it was. Stronger than it had been, yes, but still weak, relatively speaking.

I tried to dig deeper, but got nowhere. Whatever this was, it didn’t feel like anything I’d felt before—not night, darkness, demonic, nor eldritch. Not even death aether. Just inky shadows and utterly unfamiliar.

Maybe it only worked through the tether that had formed. I considered trying to push something through it, just to see, but stopped myself. I wasn’t about to use Kara as a test subject, not when I didn’t understand the rules of the game. Not when I wasn’t sure I hadn’t broken them already.

So I backed off. For now. There was little point worrying about it if, come tomorrow, it had changed again.

With a final glance inward and my thoughts still spinning, I sighed and headed to bed.