The sun was setting when I locked the door to the small apothecary my brother, and I owned. My arms ached from grinding herbs all day, but Basin wasn’t around to do it. I couldn’t focus. Not on the papers I was supposed to be sorting, not on the kettle whistling on the stove in the corner, not even on the music humming faintly through the walls. Everything felt… wrong. Off. Tilted somehow, like the whole world was leaning slightly, and I was the only one noticing. The small, floating orb of light above my shoulder flickered again. I sighed, rubbing the glowing lines on my forearms with the heels of my hands. The markings pulsed faintly; waves of iridescent blue moving under my skin like the tide shifting with a storm.

  “Not now,” I whispered. “Please don’t start this now.”

  My magic didn’t listen. It rarely did when it sensed something I didn’t. I clenched my fist, dimming the mage light as I reached for my pouch of runes. As much as I loved my innate magic, like water, it was observant and uncontrolled. Noticing things I didn’t. The runes were my way of interpreting their signals. I poured them out on the table. The runes clattered softly against the wood, coming to rest in a crooked line that made my stomach twist. Three of them glowed, faintly, uncertainly, as if even they hesitated to be the bearer of bad news. I leaned closer, brushing my fingertips over their warm surfaces. The first rune, the Rune of Sight, pulsed in a quick, sharp rhythm. A thin circle split by a single vertical line. It shouldn’t have been lit; I hadn’t asked any questions, hadn’t tried to pry into the future.

  “Something unseen burns,” it whispered. “Look beyond what’s in front of you.”

  I shivered. Burns? Nothing burned. Not yet. Maybe it was about work, or the shop, or the damn backroom shelves that were always collapsing. My magic had a flair for drama. The second was the Rune of Calling, a spiral folding inward, glowing a deep, watery blue. It flickered like it was trying to breathe.

  “The bond is not broken,” it murmured. “One calls for another.”

  I frowned. A bond? To whom? Basin? No. He was fine. Exhausted and overworked, but fine.

  Yann?k? He’d been acting… strange lately. Distant. Haunted. But we all had off weeks.

  The runes liked to be cryptic; they were probably just warning me about some customer

  coming by with a curse. Then the last one lit. The Rune of Ruin. I sucked in a breath. I hadn’t

  seen that one glow in years, not since I was a kid and the teacher said it meant “catastrophe,” and then the roof collapsed three days later. Its jagged lines shimmered like broken glass. “Oh, how the stars fall.”

  “Follow, or fall behind.”

  My chest tightened, like my ribs were shrinking in around my lungs.

  “What does that even mean?” I muttered under my breath. “Fallen stars? Gods, could you be any more dramatic?”

  The runes didn’t answer; they never did.

  Their light pulsed once more, then steadied, waiting for me to understand. But I didn’t. Of course I didn’t. So I gathered them back into the pouch, telling myself it was nothing. Just my magic acting up again.

  Just nerves.

  Just exhaustion.

  I rose from my desk and paced the small length of the shop, trying to shake the restlessness crawling under my ribs. The night outside the window was thin and cold, the moon sharp as silver glass, hanging just above the chimneys. And somewhere under that sky, Leo. My mind kept wandering back to her, as if it was showing me a tiny sliver of direction. I didn’t know what she was doing tonight or if she was even home. She’d been distant for days, no, weeks. Forgetful, withdrawn. Staring off into corners like she heard things I couldn’t. Sometimes I’d catch her tracing shapes on her skin, runes maybe, though she’d always drop her hands the moment she realized I’d noticed. I was probably the only one who knew. The others never spent much time around her, Yann?k rarely wanted her around when we hung out. If I hurry, I should have time to find her before I meet the others at the Ruby Fang.

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  I kept telling myself I was imagining things. Except I wasn’t imagining the feeling. That heavy, sinking cold in the pit of my stomach.That itch behind my ribs like warning bells being struck from the inside out. I left through the back door of the shop, locking it behind me. I started down the streets towards the center of town, my bag of supplies I didn’t want to leave overnight in the shop, hanging heavy over my shoulder. The night air was cold, a little too sharp for early spring. I wrapped my coat tighter and hurried away from the shop, trying to shake the feeling the runes had left in my chest. The sky was bruised purple above the rooftops, clouds dragging low like tired eyelids. Everything smelled like wet stone and smoke from the baker’s hearth. Normal. Completely normal. Which is why I froze when I turned the corner and nearly collided with someone.

  “Gods, sorry,” I smiled, stepping back.

  The woman steadied herself before I did. Shallow hood, dark curls spilling out. Skin pale lavender in the streetlamp’s glow. For a heartbeat, my mind refused to match the face with the figure.

  “Leo?” I breathed.

  Leonora Morn?ngstar blinked at me, like I’d pulled her out of a dream she had no business being in. Her pupils were blown wide, her violet eyes glossy in that way people’s eyes get after crying. But her expression was tight, controlled, too controlled.

  “A~Azure,” she whispered, voice raw with something I couldn’t place. She pulled her cloak tighter, as if trying to shrink into it.

  My stomach dropped. Leo didn’t come into the city unsupervised. Ever.

  And she definitely didn’t wander around alone at night looking like she’d just outrun the end of the world.

  “What are you doing out here? Are you okay?” I asked, reaching toward her before stopping myself.

  She flinched anyway. That wasn’t right. Leo never flinched at me. “I just… needed air,” she said mechanically. “Really, I’m fine.”

  She wasn’t fine. Every part of her was trembling, not visibly, but in small, barely controlled spasms through her shoulders and hands. Like she was holding herself together by force alone. Why couldn’t my magic flare now, when I actually needed it to? Her eyes flicked past me, toward the dark road leading toward the richer district. The road that led to her house.

  Morn?ngstar Manor loomed somewhere beyond the trees, invisible but present in the way heavy storms are present, felt before they’re seen.

  My voice softened. “Leo… what happened?”

  She swallowed hard enough that I heard it. “Oh, nothing, I shouldn’t even be out here. I just need some glowdust.” She shrugged.”You don’t happen to have any? Red.” She asked

  I blinked. “Red glowdust? At this hour?”

  Glowdust was common enough, normally used as a ritual component for inscribing runes. It gave them that same glowing effect that my runes had whenever they’re activated. I didn’t take Leo for the type to use it, even the type to know what it is. She never struck me as the alchemist type; regardless, I knew I had some in my bag, and she seemed like she was desperate. I reached into the bag, searching for the vial of dust I knew I’d placed in there just earlier. It wasn’t hard to find.

  The crimson dust glittered in the light of the lantern above us as I gave her the small bottle. She wrapped her fingers around it quickly. Stuffing it in her pocket.

  “Thank you, Azure. You’re saving my life.” She breathed, her voice full of relief. “What do you need it for?” I asked her, curious.

  “I’ll show you when I’m done.” She smiled as she tugged her hood over her head, and before I could say anything else, she turned and fled into the dark, moving with a speed that didn’t feel like running; it felt like escaping. I took a step after her, but something, instinct, magic, or maybe just fear, stopped me cold. The runes in my pocket pulsed once. A warning. A plea. A promise. My breath shuddered out of me. I didn’t understand any of it. But the night suddenly felt thinner, stretched and trembling around the space where Leo had been. And for the first time, I realized: Whatever she was running from…was waiting for her at home.

  Something was so clearly wrong. Leo acting like this, Yann?k being so distant recently, those runes. The sinking feeling that something was about to go very, very wrong flooded every drop of me. However much I hurried home, I couldn’t shake it. I need to tell Basin, he’ll know what to do. He’ll have some logical explanation, like he always does. I’m sure.