The attacker jerked me backward. “Move!”
But the shock inside me had become something else.
Heat gathered in my palm, fierce and bright. Instinct took over. I grabbed the arm around my throat with both hands.
The man screamed.
Not cursed.
Screamed.
He released me and stumbled back, clutching his wrist as smoke rose from his sleeve.
I stared at my hands.
Adrian stared too.
Then Daniel and security burst through the stairwell door.
Everything became motion.
Shouting.
Boots.
A gun skidding across marble.
Adrian dragged me behind the island as Daniel tackled the first attacker. The third tried to run but collapsed when security pinned him against the glass.
Within seconds, it was over.
Except nothing was over.
Not really.
I stood shaking in Adrian Park’s kitchen, my hands glowing faintly beneath the skin.
Adrian stepped toward me slowly.
“Mara.”
I backed away. “Don’t.”
He stopped.
Daniel approached, breathing hard. “Sir, police are on their way. We found a device in the service panel. They disabled internal surveillance.”
Adrian’s eyes never left me. “And my mother?”
Daniel’s expression darkened. “Gone.”
Of course she was.
My phone rang.
The sound made me jump.
St. Raphael’s.
I answered with trembling fingers. “Hello?”
For a moment, there was only static.
Then a woman’s voice whispered, “Mara Coleman?”
“Yes?”
“Your grandmother is awake.”
Relief hit so hard I nearly folded.
But the woman was not finished.
“She says you need to leave Mr. Park’s home immediately.”
My eyes moved to Adrian.
His face sharpened.
Through the phone, Grandma Bee’s weak voice suddenly came on the line.
“Mara,” she rasped.
“Grandma?”
“Listen to me. That man’s mother came to my room.”
The world narrowed.
“She said your hands are waking up,” Grandma Bee whispered. “And baby… she knew your mother’s name.”
My breath stopped.
Grandma Bee began to cry.
“She called you Celeste’s daughter.”
Adrian went pale.
The phone slipped from my hand and hit the floor.
In the silence that followed, Adrian looked at me as if the dead had just opened their eyes.
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