Chapter 62: Opening Direction

Malric left the apartment nearly half an hour later expecting the distance to help settle the noise in his head. Instead, the moment the elevator doors opened into the parking garage, unease curled sharply beneath his ribs. The feeling only worsened once he stepped outside. Houston moved around him with its usual restless energy. Cars rolled steadily through the streets beyond the building entrance while music drifted faintly from somewhere farther down the block. Humid night air clung to the city after an earlier rainstorm, leaving the pavement slick beneath reflections of neon signs and passing headlights. Everything looked normal. Malric hated that it felt anything but. He slowed near the curb, dark eyes lifting toward the skyline stretching across downtown. Energy threaded beneath the city like veins beneath skin, old power woven carefully through Houston long before humans covered it in steel and concrete. Most people never noticed it. Even supernatural creatures moved through the city without understanding how much slept beneath them. Tonight, those currents were shifting. Not violently. Aware. The pressure rolled subtly through the streets around him, almost curious, and realization settled heavily in his chest before he could stop it. Jess. A humorless breath escaped him. She had absolutely no idea what her existence was beginning to stir. Half celestial bloodlines were rare enough already. A balance between opposing forces should not have been possible at all. History had erased people for less complicated origins than hers. Entire factions once considered bloodlines like that too dangerous to survive. And now one was standing barefoot in Corvin Blacke’s penthouse making sarcastic comments while drinking bottled water. The absurdity of it almost made him laugh. A black car waited across the street beneath the glow of a flickering streetlamp. Malric noticed the familiar presence leaning against the driver’s side door before his eyes fully settled on the figure itself. Corvin stood motionless with his hands tucked loosely into the pockets of his coat, watching the building entrance with calm that felt far too deliberate to be casual. Of course he already knew something had changed. Malric crossed the street slowly.

Corvin’s gaze lifted fully to his the second he reached the sidewalk.

“What happened upstairs?”

Straight to the point. Malric considered several possible answers before dismissing all of them.

“I’m still deciding how concerned I should be.”

That earned the faintest narrowing of Corvin’s eyes.

“Interesting answer.”

“It’s been an interesting night.”

Corvin pushed away from the car slightly, studying him with quiet precision. “Jess.”

Not a question. Malric nodded once. For a moment neither of them spoke while traffic moved steadily through the intersection behind them. Somewhere nearby, a siren echoed faintly through downtown before disappearing into the distance.

Corvin finally glanced toward the skyline.

“I felt the shift from three blocks away.”

Malric looked at him carefully. “Then you know this isn’t Council interference.”

“No.” Corvin’s expression darkened slightly. “Which concerns me more.”

That made two of them.

Malric rested one hand briefly against the roof of the car, exhaustion pressing heavier into him now that the adrenaline from the conversation upstairs had started fading.

“She doesn’t know what she is,” he said quietly.

Corvin looked back at him immediately. “Fully?”

“Not fully.”

“And now?”

Malric hesitated. The city pulsed subtly around them again, low and almost imperceptible, but enough to sharpen the tension already coiling through his thoughts.

“Now she knows enough to become dangerous,” he admitted.

Corvin went still at that. Not fearful. Calculating.

“Dangerous to who?”

Malric almost smiled.

“That,” he said, opening the passenger door, “is becoming a very complicated question.”

Corvin remained where he was for another second before circling toward the driver’s side. The engine started smoothly once they settled inside, but neither of them spoke immediately as the car pulled away from the curb. Downtown lights blurred past the windows in streaks of white and gold. Malric leaned his head back briefly against the seat, staring toward the ceiling of the car while exhaustion dragged heavily at the edges of his concentration. He could still feel the echo of Jess standing beside him near the apartment windows. The honesty in her questions. The complete lack of fear when she looked at him after learning what he was. Most people eventually looked afraid. Jess looked curious. That felt significantly more dangerous.

“You’re thinking too loudly again,” Corvin said dryly from the driver’s seat.

Malric opened one eye. “That sentence should not make sense.”

“And yet.”

The faint amusement in Corvin’s voice faded almost immediately afterward.

“What exactly did she learn?”

Malric stared out the passenger window for a long moment before answering.

“She knows about the celestial bloodline.”

“And yours.”

“Yes.”

Corvin absorbed that quietly.

Streetlights swept across the interior of the car in shifting patterns as they moved deeper into the city.

“And how did she react?”

Malric looked genuinely offended by the question.

“She accused me of being emotionally dangerous.”

A pause.

Then, unexpectedly, Corvin laughed.

Not loudly. Not long. Just enough disbelief to make Malric narrow his eyes immediately.

“You find this amusing?”

“I find the fact she said that to your face amusing.”

“She says most things directly to my face.”

“Yes,” Corvin replied calmly. “Which is why Rowan likes her.”

That softened something unexpectedly sharp in the conversation.

Malric glanced toward him. “How is Rowan?”

Corvin’s expression shifted almost immediately at the mention of her name.

“Tired.”

That single word carried far more weight than it should have. Malric understood anyway. The network tying itself around the city had affected Rowan differently from the beginning. She felt things other people missed. Connections. Pressure shifts. Emotional residue buried inside places power had touched. Even before she fully understood the supernatural world, she had been reacting to it instinctively.

And lately Houston felt like a storm trying to wake up.

“She sleeping?” Malric asked.

“For now.”

The answer settled heavily between them. Because none of them really expected that to last.