The rain hadn’t started yet, but the sky looked like it was getting ready to spit in my face. Fitting, really. Tonight was already a mess, and I hadn’t even been paid for it. I tugged my cloak tighter and slipped out of sight of the others before Basin decided to think I wanted to hear him tell me about Azure’s magic, again. He didn’t need to tell me her magic was acting strange; anyone with half a nose could smell trouble in the air. Yann?k looked like he’d seen something crawl out of his nightmares, Basin was two minutes away from fainting, and the tavern stew tasted like disappointment. I needed fresh air. Or, well, air that wasn’t stale beer and anxiety.

  The alley was damp, smelling of cold stone and rain that couldn’t make up its mind. I tugged my cloak up over my shoulders, boots tapping a rhythm down the narrow path behind the butcher’s shop. The city felt wrong tonight. Too still. Too aware. Like the shadows were holding their breath. Great. I stopped by a half-rotted door, under a lantern that flickered like it owed the wind money, and leaned against the wall, arms crossed, trying not to think about the way Azure’s magic was glowing like something was crawling under her skin. I didn’t have to wait long. A shape peeled itself from the shadows across the alley. Rhett always appeared like that. Quiet, theatrical, smug enough to make the gods jealous. I could feel he’d been following me. With everything that had been going on recently, I’d learned to keep an eye out.

  The air shifted. Not with wind, there wasn’t any, but with a kind of pressure that settled between my ribs. I slowed without meaning to, listening. Nothing moved. Nothing breathed. Still, the shadows between the warehouses looked wrong, stretched thinner than moonlight allowed. One of the lanterns flickered overhead, buzzing like it was fighting to stay lit. I told myself it was exhaustion. A long night. Too much thinking. But the feeling didn’t leave, not even when I stepped out of the alley and back onto the main stretch of the docks. It clung.

  Like something was standing just out of sight, deciding whether I was worth its time. I shook it off. Or tried to. Something other than Rhett was here. Something with that same staring gaze from a week ago.

  “Scarlet.”

  His voice cut through the street like it always did, smooth, smug, impossible to ignore. I spun around before I even realized I was moving, heart, jumping into my throat. There he was, sitting on a barrel like some stray cat who’d claimed the whole miserable dock as his throne. Rain-soaked curls plastered across his forehead, coat hanging open in that careless way that made it look like he wasn’t freezing. Typical. He pushed his hair back from his eye and gave me that infuriating half-smile. The one he used whenever he wanted me to forget he was falling apart.

  “I come all the way down here to protect your delicate self,” he said, pressing a dramatic hand to his chest, “and this is the greeting I get?”

  “Delicate?” I marched toward him. “Please.”

  He hopped off the barrel, boots splashing against puddles as he closed the distance. Too close. Too casual. Always too damn close when he didn’t want to think about his own problems.

  “You’re shaking,” he said, voice softer now. The kind of soft that made something inside me stutter, which only pissed me off more. “And before you lie~.”

  “I’m not lying.” I shoved past him. My feet kept moving even though my chest tightened at the lie I’d just told. “And stop pretending everything’s fine.”

  He caught my wrist, not hard, just enough to make me stop. Enough to make my breath catch. The shadows behind him shifted a little too sharply for how still the air was.

  “What am I supposed to do, Saoirse?” he asked. “Tell me.”

  “You could stop acting like Daniel didn’t exist!” The words tore out of me harder than I meant. “Your brother is missing, Rhett! Gone. And you’re,” My voice cracked. I hated that it cracked. “You’re acting like you’re waiting for it to happen again.”

  Something flickered behind his eye. Not anger. Not grief. Something colder. Something that made the hairs on my neck stand up again, not because of him, but because the shadows near the water twitched like they were listening.

  “You think I don’t care?” he asked, voice low enough to vibrate in my ribs. “You think I haven’t checked every alley, every gutter, every godsdamn hole in this city? I’ve been tearing the docks apart looking for him.”

  “Then why won’t you talk to me?” I whispered. “Why shut me out?”

  He stepped closer. Close enough that I felt the warmth of his breath against the cold air. “Because you’ll get hurt.”

  His throat tightened. “And I can’t lose you, too.” The street stilled. Even the water went quiet. The air felt thick again, like something unseen was leaning closer just to hear what I’d say next.

  I swallowed hard. “I’m not going anywhere.”

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  “You don’t know that.”

  “Well, I’m saying it.”

  He looked at me like he wanted to believe it. Needed to believe it. His fingers loosened around my wrist, slowly, like letting go might break something. The lantern above us flickered again. A sharp buzz. A shiver up my spine. Rhett noticed it too; I saw the way his jaw clenched, the way his eye flicked toward the dark behind me.

  “What was that?” he asked. “Nothing,” I said too quickly.

  He didn’t push it. He never did when it came to nightmares that weren’t his. Just sighed, tired in a way I wasn’t used to seeing.

  “Come on,” he murmured. “Let’s get off the street.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I snapped, spinning so fast the smug look fell right off his face. “You drop this on me and then tell me to, what? Go home? Pretend it doesn’t exist?”

  Rhett blinked, caught off guard. “Scarlet~”

  “Don’t Scarlet’ me.” I marched right up to him. “You show me a list of people who vanished in the same pattern Daniel did, your brother did, and your brilliant idea is for me to run?”

  “It’s not an idea, it’s the only option,” he shot back. “You shouldn’t be anywhere near that family tomorrow.”

  “Why?” I demanded. “Because you think I’m stupid?”

  “Because you’re reckless,” he said, stepping closer. “And because I actually want you alive.” That stopped me for a heartbeat. Just one.

  “You don’t get to say that,” I muttered.

  “Why not?” His jaw tightened. “You think I brought you that list just for fun?”

  “You brought it because I’m the only one who listens to you,” I said. “And now you want me to turn my back?”

  “You don’t know what they’re dealing with!” His voice cracked around the edges, fear, not anger. A cold gust rolled down the alley, wrong in a way I couldn’t name. The lantern above us flickered once. I told myself it was the breeze. It didn’t feel like one.

  “Whatever is happening is bigger than all of us,” Rhett said, quieter now. “Bigger than missing people and dead ends. And you?” He swallowed hard. “You walk straight into danger like you’re immune to it.”

  “I walk because someone has to,” I shot back. “Because if I don’t, if I don’t help them, then who the hell will? You?”

  His eye flashed. The hurt there hit deeper than I intended. “You think I’m a coward,” he said.

  “I think you’re terrified,” I answered. “And I think you hide it behind all that charming bullshit.”

  The shadows behind him shifted subtly, as something ducked out of sight. He noticed it too; he glanced over his shoulder, tension running tight through him.

  “Saoirse.” His voice dropped low. “Something feels off.”

  “No shit,” I muttered, but my pulse kicked anyway. I didn’t look back. I didn't want to. He stepped close again, too close, the kind of close that made my chest feel hollow and tight all at once.

  “You can’t save everyone,” he said softly. “And I can’t lose anyone else.”

  “Then don’t.” My voice was barely a whisper. “Don’t lose me. Help me.”

  The lantern buzzed sharply. Both of us flinched.The air pressed in around us, the same too-still feeling from nights on the docks. Watching. Waiting. I wasn’t wrong. Whatever that was had been following us. It knew who we were, it knew that we knew. Rhett sucked in a breath like he’d been holding it too long. The lantern steadied, its hum fading back into the thrum of the docks, but the quiet it left behind felt thinner somehow. Like the air was pretending to be normal. He dragged a hand through his hair, shaky, trying and failing to pull his mask back on. I stepped away from him, needing space before I did something stupid, like lean into him. My pulse was still in my throat.

  “Scarlet, what’s wr~”

  “I’m fine,” I cut him off, voice embarrassingly small at first. I cleared it. I tried again. “I’m fine. Just overloaded. Long night.”

  Rhett let out a humorless laugh. “You don’t say.”

  We stood there like idiots, neither of us sure how to breathe normally again. The street stretched ahead, wet and dark, but the pressure in the air eased one thin layer at a time, like whatever had noticed us was slipping back into the cracks.

  “Do you…” He stopped himself. Reset. “Let me walk you home.”

  I shook my head fast. Too fast. “No. I need to think. And you need to… do whatever it is you do when you’re not harassing me.”

  “Harassing you?” A ghost of a smile tugged at his mouth.

  "Being insufferable,” I corrected, because any other word would’ve been dangerous.

  He stepped back just enough to let me breathe again. “Get home safe, Scarlet.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “Make me stop.” He chuckled

  I rolled my eyes, but the heat in my face wasn’t anger. Not entirely. I turned before he could see more than I wanted him to. My boots splashed through the puddles, loud in the silence. I didn’t look back, but I felt him watching until I turned the corner. The street behind me stayed quiet. Too quiet. But whatever had been watching us… it didn’t follow. Not this time. I knew Rhett was following in its place. He never would have let me go anywhere alone after what we’d just witnessed. Even though I couldn’t see him, I knew he was off on some rooftop or tucked into the dark. After Daniel disappeared, he hadn’t let me out of his sight for more than two consecutive hours, if I’d been counting correctly. If it was anyone else, I would have slowed down long ago. Picked the fight. I just knew that Rhett would be the last person to ever hurt me. Not because he couldn’t. Because he wouldn’t.

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