Kael didn't go back to sleep.
He tried once. Lay down, closed his eyes, forced his breathing to slow the way he always did when he needed rest more than comfort. But it didn't work. The moment he drifted even slightly, something pulled at the edge of his awareness, not enough to drag him back into Veyruun, but enough to remind him that it was there.
Waiting.
Watching.
And now… hunting.
He opened his eyes again and stared at the ceiling.
"Yeah," he muttered. "Not tonight."
The room felt smaller than usual. Not physically but in the way silence can close in when your mind refuses to settle. Every sound carried weight now. The faint hum of electricity. The distant noise of traffic outside. Even his own breathing felt too loud, too present.
Too real.
Kael sat up slowly, running a hand across his face before pushing himself to his feet. His body protested immediately his side still not fully healed, his muscles heavy from the strain of the past two nights but he ignored it. Pain had become background noise at this point.
What mattered now wasn't rest.
It was control.
And he was losing it.
He walked toward the mirror again, stopping just short of it. For a long moment, he just stood there, studying his reflection like it might give him something useful.
It didn't.
"You're the problem," he said quietly.
The reflection didn't respond.
Didn't shift.
Didn't betray him.
But Kael knew better now.
"You opened the door."
"You became the connection."
"You can't keep both."
The words layered over each other in his mind, refusing to settle into anything simple. Because none of it was simple anymore. It wasn't just survival. It wasn't just fighting through the night and waking up with scars he couldn't explain.
It was choice.
And he still didn't understand what he was choosing between.
Kael exhaled slowly and stepped back. "Then I'll figure it out before you force me to."
But even as he said it,
Something in him knew time wasn't on his side.
Morning came without him noticing when it started.
The sky had shifted from dark to pale gray, the city waking up again in its usual rhythm, unaware of how close something else had come to breaking through. Kael leaned against the window, arms crossed loosely, watching the streets below as people moved like nothing had changed.
Because for them
Nothing had.
"Lucky you," he murmured.
A soft knock at the door pulled his attention away.
Kael stiffened slightly.
No one came here unannounced.
Another knock.
More insistent.
"Kael, I know you're in there."
Lena.
Of course.
He closed his eyes briefly. "Should've expected that."
She wasn't the type to let things go.
And after what she'd seen,
After what he'd shown her,
There was no chance she'd stay quiet.
Kael pushed himself off the wall and walked to the door, unlocking it but not opening immediately. He paused for a second, steadying himself not physically, but mentally.
Then he opened it.
Lena stood there, arms crossed, expression already set somewhere between concern and determination.
"You look worse," she said immediately.
Kael leaned lightly against the doorframe. "Good morning to you too."
"I'm serious."
"I can tell."
She didn't move from the doorway. "Can I come in?"
Kael hesitated.
Not long.
But long enough.
"…Yeah," he said finally, stepping aside.
Lena walked in, her eyes scanning the room quickly not out of curiosity, but like she was looking for something out of place. Something she didn't fully understand yet, but felt anyway.
"You didn't sleep," she said.
It wasn't a question.
"Nope."
"Because of the 'not a dream' place?"
Kael shut the door behind her. "Partly."
"And the other part?"
He didn't answer immediately.
Lena turned to face him fully. "Kael."
He sighed. "It's getting worse."
"How?"
He walked past her slowly, moving back toward the table where the notebook still lay open. "It's not staying contained anymore."
Lena followed, her gaze dropping to the notebook. "Contained?"
"In sleep," he clarified. "At first, it was just there. I'd go, I'd fight, I'd wake up. That was it."
"And now?"
Kael tapped the page lightly.
"That place has a name."
Lena frowned slightly. "What?"
"Veyruun."
The moment he said it,
The air shifted.
Subtle.
But real.
Lena felt it.
Her expression changed instantly, her body going still. "Did you feel that?"
Kael nodded once. "Yeah."
"What was that?"
"Connection."
Lena looked at him sharply. "You said a word and the room just… reacted."
"I know."
"That's not normal."
Kael let out a dry breath. "You're starting to catch on."
She didn't smile.
Didn't even react to the sarcasm.
Instead, she stepped closer to the notebook, her eyes scanning the page. "You wrote this?"
"I don't remember writing it."
That stopped her.
She looked up slowly. "What?"
Kael met her gaze. "It's my handwriting. But I don't remember doing it."
Lena stared at him, trying to process that. "That's not possible."
"Yeah," he said quietly. "I've heard that one before."
Silence settled between them again, heavier this time.
Lena looked back at the notebook, then around the room, then finally back at him. "Okay… okay, so let me get this straight," she said slowly. "You go somewhere when you sleep a place called Veyruun. You fight things there. You get hurt there. And now…" she gestured vaguely around them, "it's starting to bleed into here?"
Kael nodded. "That's the short version."
"And you don't know why?"
"I'm starting to."
That got her attention.
"What do you mean?"
Kael hesitated.
Then he said it.
"I caused it."
The words hung in the air.
Lena blinked. "You what?"
Kael ran a hand through his hair, his frustration finally slipping through. "I don't remember doing it, but yeah. I opened something. A connection between… here and there."
"That doesn't even make sense."
"I know."
"And now it's getting worse because what you keep using it?"
Kael didn't answer.
Which was answer enough.
Lena let out a sharp breath, pacing once across the room. "So every time you do whatever it is you do those tears, or whatever you're making it worse?"
Kael leaned back slightly against the table. "Basically."
She turned on him. "And you're still doing it?"
"What do you want me to do?" he shot back, his voice sharper now. "Let those things walk around the city?"
"That's not what I'm saying!"
"Then what are you saying?"
"I'm saying there has to be another way!"
"There isn't," Kael replied immediately.
"You don't know that."
"I do," he said, quieter now, but firmer. "Because I've seen what happens when I don't fight."
That shut her up.
Not because she agreed.
But because she heard something in his voice that made it clear this wasn't theory.
This was experience.
Real.
Painful.
Lena exhaled slowly, her frustration shifting into something else now something more focused. "Then we figure out how to stop it without making it worse."
Kael shook his head. "It's not that simple."
"It never is."
He didn't argue with that.
Because she wasn't wrong.
But she also didn't understand the scale of it.
Not yet.
Later that day, Lena didn't leave.
Not immediately.
She insisted on staying, watching, observing, trying to make sense of something that clearly refused to be understood easily. Kael didn't fight her on it this time. Maybe because he was too tired. Maybe because a small part of him knew he couldn't keep her out of this forever.
Or maybe,
Because he didn't want to be alone with it anymore.
They didn't talk much after that.
Not about Veyruun.
Not about the Hunter.
Not about the choice.
Instead, the silence between them filled with smaller things half-finished thoughts, quiet observations, moments where one of them almost said something and then didn't.
But even in the quiet,
Something was wrong.
Kael felt it first.
A subtle shift.
The same one from before.
Thin air.
Watching.
He straightened slightly, his eyes narrowing.
"What?" Lena asked immediately.
He didn't answer right away.
He was listening.
Not with his ears.
With something else.
"It's here," he said quietly.
Lena's expression changed instantly. "What is?"
Kael turned toward the window slowly.
"Something found me."
The room felt tighter.
The air heavier.
Lena stepped closer to him. "Kael what are you talking about?"
He didn't respond.
Because outside,
Across the street,
Something stood still.
Perfectly still.
At first, it looked like a person.
Just someone standing there.
Watching the building.
But then,
It didn't move.
At all.
Not even slightly.
And the longer Kael looked
The less human it seemed.
"Don't look directly at it," he said quietly.
Lena froze. "Why?"
"Just don't."
But it was too late.
She followed his gaze.
And saw it.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then,
The thing moved.
Its head tilted.
Too sharply.
Too precisely.
Lena's breath caught. "That's not"
"No," Kael said. "It's not."
The air shifted again.
Stronger this time.
The thing took a step forward.
Not fast.
Not aggressive.
Just certain.
Kael's expression hardened instantly.
"It found me."
Lena looked at him, her voice barely above a whisper. "What is that?"
Kael didn't take his eyes off it.
"The Hunter."
And as the word left his mouth
The thing outside smiled.