Chapter Thirty-Six
The moment I stepped outside—
I felt it.
Not stronger.
Not closer.
Just… different.
The air was cooler, the sounds sharper—cars in the distance, voices blending into the background, the normal rhythm of everything continuing like nothing had changed.
But something had.
And it wasn’t the world.
It was me.
I paused just outside the door, my fingers tightening slightly at my side as I took a slow breath.
Focus.
Not forced.
Not strained.
Just… there.
“You feel that,” I said quietly.
Yes.
Its presence didn’t shift, didn’t push, didn’t react.
But I could tell—
this wasn’t the same as being alone in my room.
“This is louder,” I murmured.
More variables.
I almost smiled faintly at that.
“That’s one way to put it.”
Because everything here demanded attentio
