SERAPHINA’S POV

Panic clawed its way up my throat.

I reached for Kieran, lightly squeezing his outstretched hand.

“Kieran.”

My voice echoed too loudly through the room. Kieran didn’t move.

My pulse thundered against my ribs.

No, no, no.

Had I hurt them?

I turned sharply toward Alois. “Alois!”

Not even a blink.

Fear crashed through me hard enough to make my hands shake.

I could still feel the remnants of power crackling beneath my skin, silver and volatile, like lightning trapped inside my veins. The energy had not fully settled after what I had done inside the puppet’s mind.

I gasped as heat unfurled across my lower back in waves, almost like something alive shifting beneath my skin.

Then, without warning, a strange instinct surfaced in the center of my mind.

Not words exactly.

More like...a knowing.

The same force that had frozen them could release them.

Tentatively, I swallowed and looked at Kieran again.

“Move,” I whispered.

The effect was immediate.

The entire room lurched back into motion at once.

Kieran inhaled sharply, his hand dropping.

Corin finished the step he had been trapped in.

Maya jerked against Ethan as if waking from a vivid nightmare.

Brett stumbled backward with a curse.

The sudden return of movement hit the room so violently that for one dizzying second, everyone simply stared at each other in confusion.

Then every gaze snapped toward me.

My stomach dropped.

Kieran’s hands gripped my arms firmly, eyes scanning my face with naked alarm.

“What happened?”

“I...” My throat tightened. “I froze you. I-I didn’t mean to.”

That was the worst part.

It felt like I was back in that room in OTS when I froze Lucian for the first time, when I had no idea who I was or what power I possessed.

I thought since the second trip to the Origins Archives that I’d mastered my powers, but this felt like a fucking regression.

Corin’s expression had gone unnervingly sharp.

His psychic presence brushed cautiously against mine before immediately retreating again, almost like he had touched something dangerous.

Brett dragged a hand over his face roughly. “It felt like my body stopped listening to me.”

Maya nodded slowly, her usual composure visibly shaken.

“I could still think,” she murmured. “I just...couldn’t move.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed as he studied me carefully, though not with fear. Concern. Calculation. Protective wariness.

Kieran’s grip on my arms tightened. “Are you okay?”

I held back a sob. He’d been the one affected, and yet he was asking if I was okay.

I managed a stiff nod.

“What exactly did you do inside his mind?” Brett asked, eyeing the puppet.

He sat slumped in the restraints now, breathing shallowly, exhaustion hollowing out his features. But the emptiness in him had changed. It was faint, almost fragile, but humanity lingered behind his eyes now.

“I broke Catherine’s restraints,” I admitted softly.

Alois went still.

“How?”

“I forced them apart.”

Silence fell again.

Not frozen this time. Just heavy.

Corin exhaled slowly through his nose. “Sera...”

The weight in his voice made my chest tighten.

While exploring Aaron and Celeste’s minds, I had woven my way through the blocks, snuck past them to find the truth.

Psychics did not brute-force their way through deeply embedded mental restraints. Especially not ones created by someone like Catherine.

Psychic work required precision. Finesse. Patience.

What I had done felt less like unlocking a door and more like tearing the hinges off reality itself.

Alois suddenly clapped his hands together once. The sound cracked through the tension.

“Well,” he announced casually, far too casually, “it has been a long, emotionally and physically exhausting day. Sera can share whatever else she found tomorrow. Everyone, retire for the night. Get some sleep.”

Maya scoffed. “I doubt any of us will be sleeping tonight.”

Alois waved vaguely toward the door. “Stare meaningfully into the distance. Whatever helps.”

Maya snorted softly before letting Ethan guide her toward the exit.

Brett lingered a second longer near the puppet, his jaw tightening as he stared at the man restrained in the chair.

Corin paused beside me as the others filtered out.

His voice lowered carefully. “You scared me tonight.”

I inhaled, my breath still trembling. “I scared myself.”

His eyes searched mine for several long seconds before he nodded once and disappeared through the doorway.

Two guards came in, unchained the puppet, and carried him into a separate holding room.

The moment the heavy interrogation room door shut, leaving only Kieran, Alois, and me, Alois’ casual demeanor vanished instantly.

“The markings on Sera’s back,” he said sharply. “Kieran, check them.”

I blinked. “What?”

Kieran frowned. “Why?”

“You’ll know when you check.”

My stomach twisted. I was suddenly aware of the burning at the base of my spine.

Kieran’s eyes flicked toward me before he gently turned me around.

I pushed my hair over one shoulder as he carefully lifted my shirt. The moment his fingers touched my skin, his entire body went rigid.

Fear spiked through me instantly.

“Kieran?”

Slowly, he lifted the back of my shirt higher. Cold air brushed against my skin, but it did nothing to soothe the burning.

Alois moved closer, adjusting his glasses.

For several long seconds, nobody spoke.

Then Kieran swore under his breath.

“What?” I demanded, twisting. “What is it?”

His hand flattened gently against the small of my back, possessive and protective all at once.

“They spread.”

A chill crawled down my spine.

“How much?”

He didn’t answer immediately—which was answer enough.

Anxiety twisted harder in my stomach as Kieran lowered my shirt and turned me toward him.

His expression was carefully neutral.

“Kieran.”

His jaw tightened.

Alois said quietly, “The markings are almost complete.”

The words echoed ominously through my head.

I thought back to that morning when Kieran first discovered them curled across my lower back like living silver script. At the time, they had only covered a small portion of my skin.

“How far?” I asked softly.

Kieran hesitated, his gaze flicking downward before returning to mine.

“Up to your ribs.”

I wrapped my arms around myself instinctively.

The silver markings had grown that much overnight?

No. Not overnight.

After tonight.

After whatever the hell I had just done.

Alina stirred uneasily in the back of my mind.

‘That should not have happened so quickly.’

My chest tightened further.

‘You said yours never changed.’

‘They didn’t.’

That answer did absolutely nothing to comfort me.

Alois removed his glasses slowly and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Well,” he said, “you know what this means, don’t you?”

Corin’s words echoed in my mind.

‘When the pattern fully forms, your anchoring will be complete. When that happens, your power will stabilize at its highest level.’

“I’m close to reaching Sovereign level,” I whispered.

“I suppose congratulations are in order,” Alois said in a voice that suggested the opposite of congratulations.

I forced a smile. “I’m getting stronger. That’s a good thing...right?”

“Do not let the other Alphas find out about this.”

The seriousness in Alois’ tone sent a fresh wave of unease through me.

Kieran’s arm slid around my waist.

“They won’t,” he said flatly.

A lump formed in my throat, but I forced it down.

“They already know I’m a psychic and a silver wolf. Is this that big a deal?”

“You froze a room filled with three Alphas, a Beta, and two powerful psychics," Alois pointed out. "And you didn’t even mean to.”

The fluorescent lights hummed softly overhead. Somewhere farther down the corridor, guards moved through the lower level, distant footsteps echoing faintly against concrete and steel.

But inside the room, the silence thickened.

“The alliance is still fragile,” Alois continued carefully. “You’ve earned their trust to some extent. But once the Alphas learn you have the power to control them...” He exhaled quietly. “Fear dismantles trust faster than almost anything else."

I knew he was right.

If the Alphas knew I had the power to immobilize them—and gods knew what else—with a thought...

"They’d see me as a bigger threat," I whispered. "They could even turn on us."

Kieran’s arm tightened around me, as if sensing exactly where my thoughts had gone.

“You are not a threat,” he said firmly.

I looked up at him. His eyes held mine with unwavering intensity.

Alois sighed softly. “No, she isn’t. But fear has a way of turning the unexplainable into something monstrous. It’s why witches were once burned at the stake, and vampires hunted into the night.”

The truth of that settled heavily into the room.

For a long moment, nobody spoke.

Then Alois looked at me again, his expression turning almost reverent beneath the concern.

“Still,” he murmured, “Catherine built restraints designed to survive psychic collapse, and you shattered them. I can think of no one more deserving of Sovereign level.”

The silver markings beneath my skin still burned.

Not painful anymore.

Growing.