Ronnie kept staring at the water long after the others had moved on, his jaw tight and eyes distant. Finally, he cleared his throat and straightened, dusting his hands.
“I’ll take some samples,” he said. “We’ll run them through the lab and see if anything lingers.”
No one questioned him, but I could feel their eyes on me-especially Ryder’s. His steady, assessing gaze seemed to see too much. He stepped closer, brushing his fingers against mine in silent reassurance. The warmth inside me steadied.
“I’m fine,” I murmured.
“I know,” he replied softly. “But it’s not you I’m worried about.”
Ronnie looked up from where he crouched, studying me with that familiar blend of curiosity and caution that always lived in his eyes. “Paige,” he said after a pause, “tell me-what do you feel now? Any lingering pull? Is the vision making more sense?”
I opened my mouth but hesitated, frowning. I tried to focus, searching for that strange thread that had drawn me earlier, but it was gone. The hum that had echoed beneath my skin, that heartbeat from the earth-it had fallen silent. The more I chased it, the more it slipped away, like water seeping through fingers.
“I don’t think so,” I admitted. “It’s fading fast. The tug I felt… it’s just disappeared. And the vision…” I paused, trying to recall the details, but they blurred and slipped away with each breath. “It’s unraveling in my mind. I can remember how I explained it, but not the vision itself. The water, the man, the voice-they’re all fading.”
Ronnie hummed thoughtfully, standing and brushing damp soil from his knees. “Then whatever the vision was trying to show you,” he said carefully, “it may have already served its purpose. Sometimes that’s how it works-the message burns bright until it’s fulfilled, then it fades away.”
I tilted my head, puzzled. “Fulfilled how? I don’t even know what I was supposed to do.”
He shrugged. “Either you’ve done what was needed, or the path it showed has changed. Visions aren’t always fixed-they adapt to choices, to outcomes. Maybe the danger it warned about has passed, or maybe it shifted somewhere else.”
His explanation settled uneasily in my chest. “Then why did I see a man kneeling by the creek? And hunters-I remember that clearly. But there’s no one here.”
“Visions don’t always show things as they really are,” Ronnie said softly. “They speak in symbols. The figures you saw might not be literal people. They could represent forces or events. Hunters might symbolize corruption… maybe the toxin. The man could stand for something else-guilt, sacrifice, warning, or suggestion. We won’t know until the pattern repeats.”
I nodded slowly, though the neatness of his words felt too tidy for something that had felt so vivid, so alive.
“Maybe,” I whispered. But even as I said it, a chill ran through me. While most of the vision faded like smoke, the image of that man remained-still, kneeling, his hands blackened up to the wrists, darkness spreading from him into the earth. There was pain in that picture. A desperate stillness that clung to the memory.
Ronnie moved a few feet away, kneeling to fill another vial with the darkened soil. I could tell he was giving me space to process everything.
“Could the man represent the poison itself?” I asked after a moment. “Something dying or corrupted?”
“Possibly,” Ronnie replied without looking up. “Or maybe the part of the forest that suffered because of it. The earth holds energy. When it’s poisoned, it leaves echoes. Some beings are sensitive to those echoes-you might have just… seen one.”
The idea made sense, but it didn’t quite sit right. “It didn’t feel like an echo,” I murmured, shaking my head. “It felt real. Like he was real.”
That caught Ronnie’s full attention. He straightened, eyes narrowing slightly. “Real how?”
“I don’t know,” I said, frustrated. “Like he wasn’t supposed to be there. Like he didn’t belong, but he mattered. The vision wasn’t about him, but everything else revolved around him somehow.”
Ronnie studied me in silence for a long moment before nodding once, more to himself than to me. “Then we’ll keep that in mind,” he said finally. “Sometimes the details we can’t explain are the ones that matter most later.”
I glanced back down at the water. It was calm now, pure and glassy, with no trace of the thick dirt or the golden and silver light that had bloomed moments ago. But when I blinked, I almost swore I saw a flicker of shadow beneath the surface-a faint shape that vanished before I could focus.
“I’ll run these samples to Jake as soon as we get back,” Ronnie said. “Maybe the lab results will tell us something the vision couldn’t.”
I nodded, but the unease lingered deep inside. I knew the vision wasn’t finished with me. It had changed, perhaps, but it wasn’t gone.
Ronnie had already moved a few paces away, crouching again with a small vial and pipette. Watching him, I could tell he was rattled. He kept glancing back at the spot where I’d touched the water, his brow furrowed as if trying to fit what he’d seen into some impossible box.
Remy shifted beside me, arms crossed, his expression unreadable. “You think she purified it?” he asked quietly.
Ronnie exhaled through his nose. “I think something happened that shouldn’t have been possible.” He looked at me again, his tone softening. “Moon Children draw on lunar energy-healing, empathy, intuition-but this… what I saw… I can’t explain it. It seemed like something else entirely.”
“Maybe she’s just evolving,” Callen offered, trying to sound casual, though there was a protective edge in his voice.
Ronnie shook his head slightly. “Or maybe we’re witnessing something new altogether.”
The silence that followed felt heavier than before.
Ryder’s eyes shifted between me and Ronnie. “If there’s something you’re not telling us, now’s the time.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” Ronnie said, though his voice lacked conviction. “Just… be careful. Powers don’t change without cause. If this isn’t an evolution of her gift, it might be a side effect of exposure to the toxins-or something else entirely.”
“I haven’t been exposed to the toxin,” I said firmly, shaking my head.
His eyes flicked toward me again, thoughtful but uncertain. I could almost hear the unspoken words-the ancient fears and mysteries none of us fully understood.
I crossed my arms, trying to steady the strange warmth still curling inside me. “Whatever this is,” I said softly, “I can handle it.”
Ryder’s hand brushed my back, steadying me. “You don’t have to handle it alone.”
Our eyes met, and for a moment, the world around us-the creek’s hum, the rustling leaves, even Ronnie’s worried expression-faded away. There was only us, and the unwavering faith shining in his gaze.
Behind us, Ronnie lingered a moment longer, crouched at the water’s edge. I caught his reflection flickering faintly on the surface as he whispered under his breath, more to himself than anyone else.
“Not Moon Child magic,” he murmured. “Then what in the Goddess’s name are you?”
**Callen’s Perspective**
The journey back from the creek was quieter than anyone expected.
Even the forest seemed to hold its breath. Somewhere high above, birds continued their songs, and the wind whispered softly through the leaves, but all of it felt distant-mere background hums. The true silence was the one that settled over us. Paige hadn’t uttered a single word since Ronnie’s last remark, and honestly, none of us had broken the stillness either.
She walked ahead of me, just behind Ryder, her posture rigid yet her head bowed slightly, as if carrying some invisible weight inside her chest. Occasionally, a stray beam of light would flicker across her skin-was it sunlight filtering through the canopy, or something else? I couldn’t be sure anymore.
I stayed close to her side-not hovering, but near enough so that if she faltered or if that unfamiliar warmth in her chest turned into something darker, I could catch her before she fell. Beneath my skin, my wolf prowled restlessly, pacing with a sharp edge of unease.
“She’s fine,” I told him, though even I wasn’t entirely convinced.
Ryder glanced back once, his eyes searching Paige the same way mine did, then turned forward again. Remy brought up the rear, as quiet as ever, though the tension in his shoulders betrayed him. Parker walked alongside Paige, his fingers twitching nervously, as if wanting to reach out and hold her hand-but we all sensed she needed space right now.
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