The city did not calm after the appearance of the bronze eagle. If anything, it leaned further into a jagged, breathless unease. More reports surfaced every hour: creatures with too many limbs sighted in the subways, strange, bioluminescent growths pulsing in the cracks of the sidewalk, and the sky remaining that bruised shade of violet.
But for Evan, the world narrowed.
The sprawling chaos of the global mutation hadn't lessened, but its volume had been turned down. Something else had entered his life, a gravity far more potent than the one he manipulated with his hands.
Liora.
They did not exchange numbers or social media handles. They did not plan their meetings with calendars or texts. And yet, they kept meeting. It was a magnetic pull that defied logic. Evan would find himself drawn to a specific rooftop at dusk, or a quiet, abandoned wharf after midnight, and she would be there.
