Chapter 67: Chapter 67
The apartment fell silent again after Corvin’s words. Older than the Council. Rowan was beginning to hate sentences that sounded impossible. Jess looked like she was reaching the same conclusion. She stood near the hallway with both arms folded tightly, still wearing oversized borrowed pajamas while trying to process supernatural horror beyond normal human comprehension.
“To clarify,” Jess said carefully, “the terrifying reflection woman is older than the terrifying organization controlling half the supernatural world.”
“Yes,” Corvin answered.
Jess stared at him. “You all really need less horrifying enemies.”
“That option disappeared centuries ago,” Malric muttered.
“Comforting.”
Rowan rubbed tiredly at her forehead before looking back toward the broken windows. Emergency lights still painted the apartment in dim red shadows while Houston glowed beyond the fractured glass. The city looked normal again. Which officially meant nothing anymore.
“What does she want?” Rowan asked quietly.
Corvin’s expression darkened slightly. “That is the problem.”
“You don’t know.”
“No.” His gaze settled carefully on hers. “And I dislike not knowing.”
That felt like the understatement of the century.
Malric leaned one shoulder against the kitchen counter, exhaustion visible beneath the usual sharp edge of his expression now. “If she truly woke because of the city shifting, then she’s probably searching for stability.”
Jess frowned. “What exactly does that mean?”
“It means ancient beings tied to supernatural systems usually anchor themselves to power sources,” Malric explained. “Cities. Bloodlines...... Bonds.”
Rowan immediately hated where the conversation was heading.
“Why did you pause before bonds?”
Nobody answered quickly enough.
Jess pointed immediately. “There it is again. The creepy silence thing.”
Corvin crossed slowly back toward Rowan. “The bond changed the balance around you.”
“That sounds fake.”
“It unfortunately isn’t,” Malric replied.
Rowan exhaled sharply and dropped onto the edge of the couch. “I need a chart. Or alcohol. Possibly both.”
“Alcohol would probably make this worse,” Jess said.
“That feels rude considering current circumstances.”
A faint smile almost touched Malric’s mouth before disappearing again. The apartment lights flickered once more. Every person in the room froze instantly. Nothing happened afterward. Still, Rowan noticed Corvin subtly shift closer to her anyway. That tiny movement affected her more than it should have. He always moved toward danger without hesitation. Tonight he kept moving toward her too. The realization warmed something painfully soft in her chest.
Jess noticed the movement as well and narrowed her eyes slightly.
“Oh my God,” she muttered.
Rowan looked toward her. “What now?”
Jess gestured vaguely between Rowan and Corvin. “You two somehow became more emotionally intense after the ghost woman incident.”
Malric actually laughed softly at that.
Corvin looked unimpressed. “This feels like poor timing for commentary.”
“I almost got murdered by haunted reflections,” Jess replied. “I’ve earned commentary rights.”
“That is unfortunately fair,” Rowan admitted.
The tension eased slightly. Not enough. But enough for everybody to breathe again.
Malric pushed away from the counter slowly. “There’s another issue.”
Jess groaned immediately. “Amazing. Love that for us.”
“The entity revealed herself intentionally,” Malric continued. “Which means others probably felt it.”
Corvin nodded once. “The Council.”
“And anything older than the Council,” Malric added quietly.
That dragged the room straight back into silence.
Rowan looked carefully between both of them. “How bad are we talking?”
Neither answered immediately. Which was becoming deeply irritating.
Jess sighed dramatically. “I need supernatural people to start using numbered danger scales.”
Malric considered it seriously. “Seven.”
Jess blinked. “Out of ten?”
Malric looked thoughtful. “Possibly twenty.”
“Oh, come on.”
Despite herself, Rowan laughed quietly under her breath.
Jess pointed at her immediately. “Do not encourage him.”
Corvin’s gaze shifted sharply toward the windows again. Every trace of amusement vanished from his expression.
Rowan felt the change through the bond instantly.
“What?”
Corvin stayed very still.
Then he said quietly:
“We’re too late.”
The words dropped heavily into the apartment. Before Rowan could ask what he meant, every phone in the room lit up simultaneously. A violent pulse of energy slammed through the city at the exact same moment. The windows trembled. Far below them, across downtown Houston, the entire skyline flickered black. The apartment lights died instantly. This time they did not immediately return. For one disorienting second, the city outside vanished completely. No towers. No headlights. No glow from the streets below. Just darkness stretching endlessly beyond the broken windows.
Jess’s voice came quietly through the dark.
“Nope.”
Then the skyline surged back all at once. Lights exploded across Houston in rippling waves while car alarms erupted somewhere below the building. Rowan physically felt the pressure hit the apartment afterward, deep enough to rattle the floor beneath her feet. Her phone vibrated repeatedly beside her on the couch. So did Corvin’s and Malric’s. The silence afterward felt wrong. Heavy. Waiting.
Corvin grabbed his phone first. Rowan watched his expression harden almost immediately while reading whatever appeared on the screen.
“That’s not good,” Malric said quietly.
Corvin looked up. “No.”
Jess crossed her arms tightly. “I’m becoming concerned by how often you both say that.”
Malric checked his own phone. For the first time since Rowan had met him, genuine alarm crossed his face.
“Oh.”
Jess pointed immediately. “That reaction. I hate that reaction.”
Rowan stood quickly. “Would somebody please tell me what’s happening?”
Corvin’s gaze lifted toward her.
“The supernatural network protecting the city just failed.”
The words hit the room like ice water.
Rowan blinked once. “Failed how?”
Malric answered quietly.
“Completely.”
Nobody spoke for a second.
Then Jess laughed once in disbelief. “You know, I miss when my biggest problem was student loans.”
“That was never your biggest problem,” Rowan muttered automatically.
Jess looked offended. “Emotionally, maybe. Structurally, absolutely.”
Corvin was already moving toward the hallway.
Rowan caught his arm before he got far. “Where are you going?”
His attention snapped back to her immediately, softer for half a second before urgency returned.
“The city felt that surge. Every supernatural faction in Houston knows something happened now.”
“And?”
“And we need to move before they determine why.”
The meaning behind the words settled heavily in Rowan’s stomach.
They.
Jess.
The bond.
All of it.
Malric pocketed his phone and looked toward the windows again. “If the wards collapsed completely, there are probably already entities tracking the energy signature from this building.”
Jess stared at him. “I’m sorry. Tracking us?”
“Yes.”
“That feels illegal.”
“Technically most of this is illegal,” Rowan muttered.
Corvin looked back toward her. “Pack only essentials.”
The command sharpened instantly through the room.
Jess blinked. “Wait. We’re leaving?”
“We don’t have a choice.”
Rowan stared at him. “Corvin.”
He stepped back toward her immediately.
The panic she had been holding together all night must have shown somewhere on her face because his entire expression softened again.
Just for her.
“I know,” he said quietly.
That almost made it worse. Because he looked worried. Corvin Blacke did not worry easily. Outside, another pulse rolled through Houston. This time distant screams echoed faintly upward from somewhere in the city below.