THE HUNTERS:II
622 Words
Something within her responded.
He felt it as a tremor beneath his touch. A fragment loosening. A memory untethering.
He did not take everything.
Only what was necessary.
The mist thickened briefly, then thinned as if drawn into his palm. He guided it away, dispersing it into the space between realms where it would not be easily found.
Her expression softened, and he removed his hand.
He drew in a slow breath and straightened.
This realm tugged at him now, reminding him he did not belong here fully. The longer he remained without proper anchor, the more strain it placed on the boundary between worlds.
He stepped back from her and looked one last time at the girl who had disrupted centuries of predictability.
“You will live,” he said quietly.
Whether that was a promise or a warning, even he did not know.
He took a deep breath and pictured his body in the office. The ruins blurred around him and the scent of pine and blood dissolved into polished wood and cool glass.
His eyes opened to the ceiling of his office.
For a moment, he remained still.
The sensation of her skin beneath his hand lingered. The memory of her eyes opening and locking onto his felt closer than it should.
He inhaled slowly.
Control.
The door opened almost immediately.
Avan stepped inside, closing it behind him. “You were gone longer than I thought.”
Elias did not look at him at first. He adjusted his cuff, retrieved his watch from the desk, fastening it with measured precision. Adjusting a cuff, wearing a watch. All this was normal and routine and he needed it because what just happened was the opposite of that.
“How long?”
“Seven minutes.”
Long enough.
Avan studied him carefully. “Was it hostile?”
“No.”
Avan waited.
Elias met his gaze. “A girl. Eighteen. Severely wounded.”
“A summoner?”
She wasn’t just a summoner or a harbinger. She was something else. But Elias didn’t feel the need to explain that. “Yes.”
Avan’s expression shifted almost imperceptibly. “That is rare.”
“Extremely.”
Silence settled between them.
“I want her found and taken to safety.”
“You want her found?”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
“Authorities. Something mundane. I tried to do what I could for her but she still needs medical attention. I can describe the forest where I found her. I need you to send a search team there.”
“I will arrange it.”
Elias moved toward the windows, hands clasped loosely behind his back. There, he stared at his reflection in the glass. Dark hair immaculately styled. Suit unwrinkled. Face composed.
Nothing about him revealed that, minutes ago, he had knelt in blood and ash.
“Ensure she is admitted under standard protocol,” he said finally. “No anomalies in her file.”
“It will be done.”
Avan moved toward the door, then paused. “If she summoned you once, she may do so again.”
Elias’s gaze remained fixed on the city.
“She will not know how.”
That was the intention.
The door closed softly behind Avan.
Alone again, Elias allowed himself a single, measured breath that did not quite steady him. For centuries, he had arranged his existence like a chessboard. Every move he made was one he had already anticipated, and every risk he took was one he already calculated.
Today, a dying girl had reached across realms and pulled him into chaos.
He had interfered and ensured her survival.
The encounter would affect him.
He simply did not yet understand how.
- Writer
