Rix leaned against the rusted fence across from the Hale residence, a cigarette burning low between two fingers.
Smoke curled lazily around his face as he watched the house.
Light spilled from one of the upstairs windows — a dim glow that barely touched the street.
He hadn't planned on staying this long.
He didn't like cities.
Too many eyes. Too many questions.
But tonight... tonight he had felt it.
A ripple.
A pulse.
The faint but unmistakable signal he had been hunting for years.
The kid.
Jace Hale.
Rix took another slow drag of the cigarette, the end flaring red.
He'd suspected for a while now.
Ever since he first felt the strangeness in this town, like a stone dropped into a still pond.
But suspicion wasn't enough.
Soul creatures were trickier than humans realized.
They could smell power, but power wasn't rare.
What mattered was purity.
And tonight, he had seen it.
Clear as blood under moonlight.
The way the air bent when Jace ran.
The way something unseen clawed at the edges of reality to reach him — and failed.
Not a vampire.
Not a ghoul.
Something higher.
Something raw and untouched, hidden behind mortal skin.
Rix crushed the cigarette under his boot and stepped out of the shadows.
The street was silent.
Dead.
Good.
He crossed the road, moving with the lazy gait of someone who didn't have a care in the world.
But every step was measured.
Every breath controlled.
He stopped across the street from the house again, eyes flicking up to the lit window.
The boy was changing.
It was already starting.
Slow now, but soon it would pick up speed, like a fuse burning toward a powder keg.
And when it did...
Rix smiled faintly, the kind of smile that never reached the eyes.
When it did, he would be ready.
The castle beyond the veil would stir.
Its lords would turn their eyes downward.
And all the careful work Rix had done, all the years of waiting, would finally pay off.
He needed to stay close.
He needed Jace to trust him.
To need him.
Only then could he guide the boy straight into the fire —
where the real harvest would begin.
A noise behind him made him stiffen for a second — a car turning a distant corner, headlights sweeping the street — but it passed by without slowing.
Still, Rix took it as a sign.
Enough for tonight.
He slid back into the shadows and disappeared down the alleyway, leaving nothing behind but a burned-out cigarette and a silent street.
Upstairs, behind that lit window, a spark waited.
Unaware.
Unready.
But soon, Rix thought.
Soon.