The wind outside howled, rattling the windows like an unseen force testing the boundaries of their fragile sanctuary. Katie shifted in her sleep, small fingers curling against the blanket, but whatever ancient thing lay coiled within her did not stir. Not yet. Daisy’s fingers tightened over her stomach, her body thrumming with an instinct older than thought—protect, shield, survive. The baby within her remained still, eerily so, as if sensing the weight of something vast pressing in from the edges of reality.
Christian hadn’t moved from his place by the door, his eyes locked on the space where shadows deepened unnaturally in the corners of the room. His power flared in cold pulses, frost licking up the walls, countering the quiet seep of something else. Something that didn’t belong. Agnes
