Tyler woke up choking on his own breath.The nightmare had been bad—but not bad enough to explain the cold sweat soaking his back, or the way his heart was trying to punch its way out of his ribs.Then his phone rang.Not vibrated.Not chimed.Rang.A number flashed on the screen—but there was no option to answer.No green icon.No swipe.Nothing.The phone just… rang.Two full minutes.By the time it stopped, Tyler’s hands were shaking so badly he nearly dropped the phone. He wiped his palms on his pajamas and stared at the screen like it might bite him.Then a message appeared.It blinked.The interface wasn’t his phone’s interface. The font was wrong. The colors were wrong. It pulsed faintly, like something alive—like a dragon breathing, waiting.What the fuck…Had his phone been hacked?Who the hell could even do something like this?With trembling fingers, he tapped the message.It was painfully simple.“We can tell the Matriarch about your baby.Not a threat.Type YES if you wan

“How can I help you?” Cole asked calmly, as if he didn’t notice how massive they were—or how one punch from any of them could rearrange his entire face.“Now!”The man who looked like their leader barked the order.The sound alone froze Amanda.Her brain screamed run, her mouth screamed Cole, but her body? Her body betrayed her. Locked. Stiff. Useless. She tried to grab his arm, tried to pull him inside, tried to do something—but fear glued her feet to the floor.Two of the men stepped forward, cracking their knuckles.Amanda squeezed her eyes shut.This was it.She braced herself for the sound—bone meeting bone, skin splitting, Cole’s face ruined forever—But instead…Nothing.No impact.No scream.No sound at all.Silence swallowed the morning.Amanda slowly opened her eyes.The two men were no longer on the ground.They were floating.Suspended midair, arms dangling, legs kicking weakly like they had forgotten how gravity worked. Their faces were twisted in pure, wordless terror.T

They were driving to the hospital to see Cole’s mother, but Amanda hadn’t recovered from the shock of the last… what, thirty minutes? An hour? Time felt fake right now.Her eyes kept drifting—no, snitching—toward the ring.If the ring really crawled back to Cole from the toilet… then what the hell was this? Sci-fi? Some cursed Marvel artifact? This was real life. Real plumbing. Real flushing. Rings were not supposed to come back.A thousand questions clawed at her throat, but she swallowed every single one.She couldn’t ask him.Couldn’t let him know she had tried to get rid of it.That would create friction. Unnecessary friction. The kind that sticks, the kind that grows teeth.Cole noticed the silence. Of course he did. It was rare—really rare—to sit in the same car with Amanda and feel this much tension without sarcasm or argument filling the space. He knew exactly what she was thinking about.The ring.And the fact that she couldn’t bring it up? That told him everything.He hated

Amanda tried—really tried—to keep a straight face as Cole led her down the hospital corridor. But the way he kept sneaking glances at her, smirking like a mischievous teenager, was messing with her head more than she cared to admit.At the ward door, Cole paused, giving her a few seconds to pull herself together. She nodded, bracing herself. Walking in here felt like stepping into a minefield.He opened the door and let her go first.Cole’s mother lifted her head, squinting at Amanda. “You again?” she muttered, before noticing Cole behind her.“Good morning, Mom. How are you today?” Cole asked, ignoring the jab completely, like it didn’t even register.“I was supposed to be seen by eleven… it’s only nine,” his mother said, eyes narrowing slightly.“Yeah,” Cole said smoothly, spreading his arms wide. “We thought we’d come early. Have a chat with the doctor and… since I couldn’t come without bringing Amanda along, we came ahead of schedule. Plus, you two could use the extra time to… get

Nothing had been destroyed yet. He could still regain his aura—one way or another. And, how do they say it? No position is permanent. He never really believed in that, but hell, he had to find consolation somewhere. Experience—and all the time he’d spent dealing with the matriarch—told him it was only a matter of seconds before this woman got bored of Amanda and changed her mind.That brat didn’t know when to stop, kept taking insane risks she wasn’t supposed to. And the matriarch? She hated nothing more than unpredictable people, people who refused to bend under her fingers. So far… Amanda breathed unpredictability.Tyler let out a deep breath he didn’t realize he needed. What the hell had he been tripping about all morning?The ball was still in his court. He walked like the man who lived in this kind of reality as he entered the coffee shop the creepy guy he’d mistaken for Cole had sent him to.Pushing the door open, he noted how quiet it was. For a fancy little spot like this, he