Zayden didn't smile.
He stepped over the shattered mirror like it was nothing, his boots crunching softly on the glass. Ash still clung to his shoulders. Power still hummed in the air. But his eyes… they dimmed as he looked at me. Like the fire in him paused for just a second.
He knelt down, not touching me yet. Just watching. As if making sure I was still real. He stretched his hand, still not human. With hairs and long claws....he looked majestic.
"You're shaking," he said quietly.
I let out a breathless laugh as I moved to his hand. "No shit, Sherlock."
My voice cracked halfway through, and I hated that he noticed. He looked genuinely worried. No cocky smile or laugh.... just worry.
"It's gone," he murmured.
"Yeah," I breathed, "and so's the door."
I jerked my chin toward the place it used to be. Smooth, beige wall. Like it'd never existed. Zayden looked at it like he never noticed a door when he and his shadows came for me.
"Didn't know you 'people' came with interior design privileges."
Zayden didn't rise to the sarcasm. He just looked… worn-out.
"I had to collapse the space. The boundary between this room and the rest of the building was already unstable. The mirror made it worse."
"Oh." I rubbed a shaky hand down my face. "Great. So now my dorm is a gateway to hell."
"Oh you wish it was hell" he said as he looked around.
I stared at him.
"WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO COMFORT ME?!"
He sighed, ran a hand through his hair. There were streaks of soot on his cheek. He didn't seem to notice.
"You were halfway into a pocket reflection realm," he said. "A splinter zone. They used to trap creatures like that for punishment."
"Used to? So what—detention by demonic glass door?"
He didn't laugh. "Ezra…"
And hearing him say my name like that—low, soft, almost broken—made something twist in my chest.
"You weren't supposed to be found. Not yet."
I froze.
"You all keep saying that," I muttered. "What does it mean? 'Not yet'? Who wasn't supposed to find me?"
Zayden looked down at my arm. At the place where the mark sat, still hidden beneath my sleeve.
"Your mark's waking up," he said.
That shut me up. What was this mark anyway?
My throat went dry. "I… I don't even know what it is."
"It's older than most languages. Older than wolves. Older than me."
I wanted to ask about his age but that didn't seem appropriate at the time.
"And yet it's on me." I winced.
He nodded. "Because they chose you."
I let out a humorless laugh. "They?! Well. I want a refund."
"It binds you to the between-spaces. To the things that crawl in mirrors. The shadows that can't quite make it through."
I didn't say anything.
Not because I understood.
But because I didn't want to understand.
Zayden's eyes softened. Just for a moment. He reached for my wrist and gently rolled my sleeve back.
The mark was glowing faintly. Silver-blue, like frost in moonlight. He kept acting like he wasn't the one who marked me.
"You've seen them before, haven't you?" he asked.
I didn't answer.
He looked at me. Really looked.
"You're not crazy, Ezra. You never were."
My chest cracked open a little. Just a little.
"I thought I was," I whispered. "All those nights I heard whispers. Saw things in glass. Felt things watching…"
"They were watching."
I squeezed my eyes shut, tears rolled down my cheeks.
"Why me?"
Zayden didn't answer immediately. When he did, it wasn't comforting.
"Because you're HIS."
That pulled me out of my fog.
"Whose?"
Zayden stood up. Obviously pissed.
"That's the question we don't want answered just yet."
I wanted to press further but his phone rang.... I'd never heard it ring.
A loud, shrill ringtone shattered the heavy silence.
We both froze.
It was coming from his pocket.
The phone kept ringing.
Call Incoming: "baby🐍💋"
He groaned under his breath.
"No. No no no—"
"You named her the snake emoji?" I asked, almost laughing.
"She named herself that. Don't ask."
He hesitated, then picked up with a sigh.
"Hey, love." he never sounds this soothing when talking to me.
The voice that came through was not soft.
It was rage, wrapped in velvet.
I could hear her even from where I sat.
"ARE YOU INSANE? ZAYDEN, I GAVE YOU ONE JOB. ONE. Keep the marked one hidden and breathing and NOT NEAR A SHATTERED MIRROR ZONE—"
He winced. "Technically, he is breathing. And the mirror zone shattered after I got here—"
"YOU LET A COPY NEAR HIM?!"
"I tackled it before it touched him. Baby, you should've seen me. It was heroic." he was trying to sound cool but ...
"DON'T 'BABY' ME, YOU OVERGROWN MUTT—DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT THING WAS?!"
"I'm way older than you are, princess and Yes, I broke it in half like a glowstick."
He was smiling now. Actually smiling.
I just sat on the floor. Stunned.
"Put him on," she snapped. "I want to hear if he's still mentally intact."
Zayden looked at me, lips twitching.
"He's in shock, but gorgeous as ever."
"ZAYDEN—"
He hung up. How cocky but now there was nothing but silence.
I stared at him. "You hung up on your boss-slash-lover."
"She'll call back." he said reassuringly
"Won't she kill you?" I asked
"Probably." he laughed more.
"Deserved."
He grinned at me. "You're cute when you're traumatized."
"And you're funny when you lie. So you have a girl?" I said, avoiding eye contact.
He walked up to me.
I blinked up at him, throat closing.
His eyes—cold, dull. All the gold gone. All the light, vanished.
No storm. No warmth. Just truth.
"I have no interest in you. let it sink"
My mark burned.
Not warm.
Not cold.
Just… awake.
And somewhere inside me,
something laughed.