The storm had been weeks ago, but the damage remained.
Leo had been the one to suggest it. "Let's go see the oak," he said, catching Lucia after breakfast. "The one that fell in the storm. I heard the groundskeeper telling Mrs. Hale it split clean in half. I want to see."
Lucia hesitated. They weren't supposed to go past the garden without permission. But Leo was already walking, and she found herself following.
The oak was at the edge of the property, near the old stone wall that marked the boundary. It had been the biggest tree on the grounds, ancient, gnarled, its branches reaching so high they seemed to scrape the clouds. Now it lay on its side like a fallen giant, its roots torn from the earth, leaving a dark hollow in the ground.
"It doesn't look rotten," Leo said, circling the massive trunk. The groundskeeper had said the tree was dying for years, that the storm had only finished what rot had started. But standing here, Leo wasn't so sure.
The wood didn't look rotten. It looked broken. Split down the middle as if by a giant's axe.
"We should go back," Lucia said. "If Mrs. Hale catches us out here-"
"Just a minute. I want to see something."
He moved closer to the roots. The air felt different here. Heavier. Like the moment before lightning strikes.
"Leo, I don't like this."
"Do you feel that?" He stopped. "The air is... weird. Like..."
A branch moved.
It wasn't the wind. There was no wind. But a branch near Lucia's feet had shifted, rising an inch off the ground and settling back, like something breathing beneath the soil.
"Leo-"
The branch lunged.
It whipped upward, wrapping around Lucia's wrist with the speed of a striking snake. She screamed. More branches were moving now, reaching for her arms, her legs, dragging her toward the exposed roots.
"Lucia!" Leo dropped his armload and grabbed the nearest branch, pulling with all his strength. Not her. Not her. Please.
It was like trying to tear iron.
The bark bit into his palms. Blood welled. Lucia was crying now, struggling against the grip, being pulled slowly, inexorably toward the dark hollow where the roots had torn free.
Leo felt something inside him snap.
Not break. Unlock.
The humming in his bones became a roar. Heat flooded his veins. When he pulled this time, the branch didn't bend.
It shattered.
Splinters exploded outward. Lucia stumbled free, falling against him. His arms closed around her. The other branches sank back to the ground, lifeless.
For a moment, neither of them moved. He could feel her heart pounding through her dress. Or maybe that was his heart. He couldn't tell.
Silence.
"How did you-"
"I don't know." Leo looked at his hands. His veins were dark against his skin, almost black. As he watched, they faded slowly back to normal.
"Leo. Look."
In the hollow where the roots had torn free, something was glowing.
A crystal.
About the size of Leo's fist, roughly teardrop-shaped. It pulsed with soft, shifting light, colors that had no names, that seemed to exist between the colors he knew.
"We shouldn't touch it," Lucia whispered.
"No," Leo agreed.
He reached for it anyway.
The moment his fingers made contact, the world cracked open.
A forest at night. Rain. A woman running, her bare feet bloody.
A cave. A man in black armor. A scar where his eye should be.
A flash of silver light. Two small bodies dissolving into air.
A voice:
"They cannot hide forever."
More images crashed into his skull:
Symbols carved into stone. A tree with roots that went down into darkness. Eyes opening in the dark. So many eyes.
The orphanage, seen from above. Something wrapped around it, invisible, shimmering. A wall that wasn't a wall. A barrier.
"LEO!"
Lucia's hand closed on his shoulder.
The moment she touched him, she saw it too. Everything. Her knees buckled.
The twins in their baskets. The marks glowing. A woman's voice: "Stay safe, my little ones. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
The orphanage on its hill, wrapped in something invisible. Something that was fraying at the edges.
A man's laugh: "I have been searching for a very, very long time."
Leo wrenched his hand free.
They collapsed together on the wet grass, gasping.
"What was that?"
Leo stared at his hands. He could feel something moving inside him, a power that hadn't been there before. Like a second heartbeat.
"I don't know. But I think it's been waiting for us."
"The man in the vision. He was hunting them. The twins."
"I know."
"We have to tell Miss Ingrid."
"No!" Leo's voice cracked. "That man, Arkanis, he's looking for them. If Miss Ingrid starts asking around, writing letters, trying to find out more, what if he finds out? What if he follows it back here?"
Lucia's stomach dropped. She hadn't thought of that.
"So we just... don't say anything?"
"I don't know." Leo's hands were still shaking. "I don't know what we're supposed to do. But I know I don't want to make it worse."
They buried the crystal beneath the roots, marking the spot with three small stones. Neither of them knew why. It just felt like the right thing to do.
When they walked back to the orphanage, Lucia kept glancing at Leo.
"We should still tell her," she said finally. "Eventually. She's an adult. She might know what to do."
"Maybe." Leo didn't sound convinced. "Let me think about it. Just... give me a few days."
Lucia nodded. A few days seemed reasonable.
But a few days turned into a few weeks. And the weeks stretched on. And every time Lucia thought about bringing it up, something stopped her: Leo's worried face, or the fear of making things worse, or just the simple fact that she didn't know how to explain any of it.
Later, she would remember this. She would wonder what would have happened if she had pushed harder.