Averyn's POV
I didn't sleep at all. I just lay there, staring up at the ceiling while the house made its usual noises—floorboards creaked, pipes ticked, the city pushed and sighed outside our walls. After a while, everyone else faded off, their voices slipping into that strange, uneven rhythm of sleep.
But the water inside me. Wide awake.
I didn't tell it to move. Still, it pulled at me, slow and steady, like some tide yanked by a hidden moon.
When it spoke, I kept my voice low, careful.
The water listened. Well, mostly.
I slipped out of bed and padded to the bathroom, trying not to make a sound, shutting the door as quietly as I could. Didn't want anyone to know I was up.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror—a stranger's face, thinking too much, far too aware. The water inside me paused, shifted in some strange way, but kept on moving as soon as I turned on the tap.
Not sleeping, obviously.
I scooped up water in my hands. It felt cold, almost electric, shifting under my skin. I could sense that thin line, close to freezing, but not quite. That place where water almost decides to become ice.
This time, fear didn't show up. Instead, something steadier settled in.
The Codex echoed in my head: "Control isn't about force." You have to listen. So I did.
I pictured calm as the water slipped away between my fingers. Everything went quiet. Like a lake before sunrise. The light faded, the pull eased up.
Good.
When I came back, Ruelle sat by the window on the floor, knees tucked in, hair falling everywhere. The window was shut, but the curtains still drifted on the breeze. Naturally, she wasn't sleeping.
"Can't sleep either?" She didn't look at me when she asked.
"Nope."
I sat down beside her. The air kind of shifted, like it was politely making space for me.
She leaned in a bit and whispered, "Air never shuts up, you know? It's always moving, always noticing everything." She went quiet for a second. "There was someone in the hallway earlier. I felt it."
My chest tightened. "Yeah, I noticed something too."
She picked up on that right away, finally meeting my eyes. "You weren't just imagining it?"
"We're not really imagining much these days, are we?"
We just stared at each other. Didn't say anything, but we both knew what the other was thinking. The worry was right there between them.
Jade, across the room, shifted in her sleep. For a second, her dreams flickered across her face, then faded. Carmira mumbled something I couldn't catch, lost in her own world, while Vynessa slept on, the soft light under her skin barely glowing, calm as ever.
But Gianna—
She gasped and shot upright, wide awake. Thunder boomed, a lot closer this time.
When we reached her, she blurted out, "I'm fine. Just dreams."
People always warned us about lightning.
Morning showed up way too fast. Sunlight poured in through the windows, acting like everything was normal, like the world hadn't turned upside down while we all slept.
We ate quietly—fruit, toast, the same old stuff—trying to pretend it was just a regular morning, before school, before they had responsibilities, before magic rewrote the rules.
But the Codex sat between them on the table.
Shut tight.
Watching.
Carmira leaned in and whispered, "I think it's done guiding us."
Gianna didn't look at her. "For now," she said.
I traced the edge of the book with my finger. It wasn't empty, but it felt… asleep. Like water trapped under ice, just waiting for something to break through.
Out of nowhere, I heard myself say, "We should part ways today, not completely alone, but not clinging together either. Just—feel it out. See what happens."
Ruelle nodded, slow and serious. "Duos."
Vynessa chimed in, "No authority, unless it's really needed."
Jade shot a look at Gianna. "And seriously, no heroics."
Gianna gave this crooked grin. "Define heroic."
That almost broke them. We were so close to laughing out loud.
Almost.
As we picked up our stuff, that old pull under my ribs came back—stronger this time.
Water didn't just react. It remembered. Last night, something woke up—not just in them, but out there, too. The Codex answered a call, it didn't just toss out a name.
It sensed danger.
Clouds hovered, heavy and close to the horizon, while the day pushed on, bright and normal enough. No storm—at least not yet.
I closed the door behind them, senses sharp, heart steady. Whatever watched them in the dark hadn't left.
It was still out there, just waiting.
And honestly, I couldn't stop thinking about how water, slow and quiet, wears down even the hardest stone.