Elizabeth shoved open the car door, her heels clattering against the driveway. Her voice rose sharp and shrill, tearing through the quiet of the Clark mansion.“Do you people want me dead? This freak nearly killed me!”Ethan stumbled out after her, shutting the car door with trembling fingers. Images spun in his headwater swallowing him, the old man’s voice echoing like thunder. His vision blurred. The steps before him stretched like shadows, shifting under his bare feet. He was losing it again. It always happened after he remembered the man. But never had the memory been so sharp, so close, so terrifyingly clear.Was this it? The day the old man promised. The day he would become great.If only he could get to his room. If only he could check the calendar.Inside, Elizabeth’s words were already ripping the peace apart. She stormed into the living room, hands flying dramatically. “I told you not to let me go with him, but no! Mother, you insisted! He almost rammed us into a building! I

Ethan woke slowly. He had just dozed off for a few minutes, but somehow it felt like forever.When he raised his head, something was different. His body no longer felt like a prison—it felt like a weapon, honed and alive. Thoughts came faster than he could grasp, whole streams of knowledge pouring into him before he even summoned them. His body moved without hesitation, a natural rhythm guiding him.He rose from the bathtub, water cascading off his skin and pooling across the bathroom tiles. The moment his bare feet touched the ground, it was as though a floodgate had opened. Medicine. Mathematics. Philosophy. Human secrets buried so deep no man should know them. His mind was no longer limited—it was open to all that there is and all that will be.And his body—light, agile, unnaturally powerful. He could see everything sharper, clearer. Almost invisible strands of cotton floating in the air, dust swirling in patterns like sacred symbols. He felt the mysterious forces of the universe c

“You can’t just make decisions that have nothing to do with you.”Kelvin snapped the words like a whip. His face was red, fingers drumming the edge of the counter. “Who gave Ethan the authority to come in here and decide anything? Does he even know how to treat acne? Since when did Ethan become an expert in curing the simplest ailments?”Mia glanced between Kelvin and Ethan, uncertainty carved across her features. “Was that… Ethan’s right to decide?” she asked, voice small. “Doesn’t Ethan work at the hospital?”Lila stepped Forward. “Ethan is my husband,” she said, her voice was steady and threaded with apology. “I’m sorry if Ethan gave you false hope. He has no medical experience. He’s just trying to help.”That admission was a fuse.“Since when can he talk?” Elizabeth snapped. “Has he been pretending all this time? What else has Ethan lied about?”Lyndia’s eyes narrowed into hard slits. “If he’s been lying about speaking,” she cut in, lethal and quick, “what else is he hiding?”Eliz

Lila stood at the edge of the hall, her hands clenched at her sides, watching as her husband left with the problematic customer. The girl had her arms looped around Ethan’s like a lover, clinging to him with a giddy, almost childlike excitement. It made something sharp and cold unfurl in Lila’s chest—a strange, unknown emotion she could neither name nor fight.She followed them with her eyes, her heartbeat drumming louder than the surrounding whispers. The hallway buzzed with staff and clients, rumors swirling like gnats, but Lila could barely hear them. There was something about Ethan—something new, something otherworldly—that held her fast. He looked ethereal, charged, as though a current of power had been switched on inside him. She had never seen anyone cling to him like that before. She had never seen him like that before.Her mother’s sudden voice snapped her back.“What’s going on?” Lyndia demanded, appearing at her side, breathing hard like a woman who had run a mile. “It’s be