Calix was still there.
A pale shape between the trees, outlined in faint silver light, half human and half something that had never belonged in this world at all. He did not move. He just watched me with those silver eyes that looked too calm for someone who had almost drowned me in a supernatural river and torched reality like it was firewood.
I could not breathe.
The air froze in my lungs as if the world itself had paused. My mark throbbed hot under my skin, pulsing like a heartbeat that did not belong to me. A pull. A warning. A brand. I could not tell which.
Then Calix tilted his head. Not a normal movement. Too slow. Too fluid. Like he was listening to a song I could not hear.
His lips curved the slightest bit.
And before I could blink, he vanished. The light around him blinked
