Back in the city, I walked up to a small hardware store. The rising sun burned across the glass, throwing pale orange streaks over the automatic doors. As they slid open, I caught a glimpse of myself in their surface; an ill-fitting shadow dragging itself into a place that belonged to normal people, people who bought screws, nails, and paint for home projects. I didn’t belong here.

  My chest felt heavier with each step. I wasn’t here for any of that shit. I was here for Carter, brought by the gnawing, twisting fear that something was wrong… terribly wrong, with Autumn. Abel’s words had festered since last night, and dread pooled in me like rot. Part of me wanted to believe that she was okay, and she had actually burned the link between us willingly. That was easier to believe… I think. But it turned out… everything I feared was true, and in this moment above ground, I had to look this situation dead in the face.

  Inside, I let the aisles swallow me. The cashier at the front noticed me, her eyes flicking up for the briefest moment before darting away as if she’d rather not see me at all. That was fine. I didn’t want to be seen either.

  I moved quickly, straight for Carter, following the pull I felt in my pulse sense that led me here. When I found him near the back, the sight rooted my feet to the shitty old tiles.

  The first thing that hit me was his appearance. His dirty-blonde hair, normally neat, was a frazzled mess, sticking in odd tufts as though sleep had long since abandoned him. His eyes were bloodshot, rimmed red in a way that spoke of nights too long, and rest too scarce. He looked older than he had any right to in that moment. I’d never seen this version of Carter… not even close.

  The second thing was what he was doing. He was pulling a chain out of a barrel, measuring it against a wall-mounted tool that customers used to measure desired lengths. The work was methodical, practiced, like muscle memory guiding him. The kind of thing you didn’t learn unless you had been in this place before.

  “Carter…” My voice slipped out low, uncertain.

  He turned at once, and though his face softened when he saw me, it didn’t disguise the deep exhaustion carved into him.

  “You’re back,” he said, quietly, like he’d been expecting me all along. He let the chain fall slack in his hands. “Good. We need to talk.”

  I stepped closer, heart hammering. “It’s Autumn, isn’t it?” The words rushed out, sharper than I intended. “It’s real...” I prayed he’d say no… and Abel was wrong.

  Carter’s eyes dropped to the chain in his hands before he nodded. His jaw worked hard, like he was grinding down words too bitter to swallow.

  “She’s… cursed,” he admitted. “You were right… that brush… Peter…. We’ve tried everything… me, Eleanor, Raven, the others. Every time we get close to breaking it…” He shook his head, the chain links rattling softly. “She turns… like an animal; snarling, thrashing, teeth bared at her own family. My little girl doesn’t even look at me like she knows me anymore.”

  The words cut through me, but it was his defeated look that really shook me. Quick flares surged in my mind of what it would be like for me if something happened to little Caydee. I clamped the thought down as fast as it came.

  I swallowed hard. “Carter…”

  His gaze flicked up to me, and I saw it then… the fracture inside him. He wasn’t just tired. He was breaking.

  “It’s tearing me apart,” he said, voice trembling with a rare rawness I’d never heard from him. “Every time I try to reach her, she looks at me like I’m the enemy. Like I’m the one she hates most. And I can’t…” His hand curled tight around the chain, knuckles white. “I can’t lose her to this thing, but I don’t know how much more she… or I… can take.” I could tell it pained him to say those words.

  The silence between us swelled thick, oppressive. All I could hear was the faint hum of the store lights, the distant sound of a cart rolling across tile; normal life, carrying on around a father who was losing his daughter to something monstrous.

  And I stood there, knowing he wasn’t exaggerating. Knowing Abel had been right. Autumn wasn’t just cursed; she had been changed; pushing me away was the first step in this change.

  Carter stood there with the chain in his hands, the weight of it sagging like a direct reflection of his mentality. The silence pressed in until finally he exhaled a jagged breath, his voice low and raw.

  “I should’ve listened to you.” His eyes met mine, bloodshot and wet. “When you warned me something was wrong… when you said you saw it in the vision… I didn’t want to believe it. But you were right, Sam. Damn it, you were right, and I should’ve gone in on her sooner.”

  The confession hit with the heaviness of something he’d been holding in for a while. His shoulders slumped under it, like the weight wasn’t just the chain in his hands, but his own failure.

  I didn’t speak. The words had jammed up in my throat, thick and useless. I was a part of this… I could have done something, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to be the guy who couldn’t take a hint, couldn’t stick around in a messy situation to find out what was really going on. Part of me was disgusted with myself, that I had just left and told Carter to look into it like it wasn’t a big deal. But I knew the real truth. I was a fucking pussy. I ran when things got hard… I did it with my family… when I was turned. And I did it here too…

  I knew these thoughts were harsh towards myself, but in that moment… it felt all too true.

  He rubbed at his temple with his free hand, sighing through his nose. “Chris and Raven are here; my uncle and aunt. You probably remember me mentioning them once or twice. They came down as soon as we called. If anyone knows how to fight this thing, it’s them. They’ve seen curses before… dealt with things like this. Or close enough.” He shook his head. “But even they can’t break it clean, not yet. Autumn fights them with everything she’s got, and it’s like the curse feeds off the resistance. We damn near lost her the last time we tried.” Tears slowly fell from his eyes, but he quickly wiped them away before anyone else in the store could see them.

  The clinking of chain links sounded again as he measured more out, slow and precise, his movements mechanical, masking the raw edge in his voice. He continued like a machine, not allowing himself to break through sheer force of will alone. He had a job to do.

  “That’s why I need this.” He lifted the length of chain slightly, his hand trembling under the strain. “We couldn’t hold her last time. She’s too strong. Stronger than she should be. If we’re going to try again, we’ll need to lock her down tighter,” Carter tensed at his own words. I could imagine he was picturing having to do this to his little girl, and it hurt him.

  The thought of Autumn, thrashing against restraints while her father wrapped chains to hold her… it sat like lead in my gut.

  “Let me see her,” I said finally. My voice came out steadier than I expected, though inside, everything was twisting. “Carter, please. I need to see her for myself.” I had to. This changed everything. The way she threw me away, cast me out of our closeness together… it changed it all. I was right, and she had been affected. I had to be there for her. I had to help break whatever bullshit Patrick had done to her. Then, I’d kill that little mother fucker!

  His response was instant, sharp as a snapped bone, “No.”

  The word cracked like a whip in the narrow aisle around us. My body went rigid at the force of it. For a heartbeat, all I could do was stare.

  Carter’s face contorted; regret overtaking the flash of anger. His hand went to his forehead, rubbing hard, his breath uneven as he sluggishly passed his hand through his disheveled, dirty-blonde hair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bark at you like that.” He shook his head, the chain clinking as he lowered it back into the barrel. “It’s just… Sam, every time your name comes up… every fucking time… she loses it. She thrashes harder, screams like something inside her wants to claw its way out. It’s not just fear… it’s rage… hate.”

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  The words sank like a stone in me. “What do you mean?”

  “It’s like the curse itself doesn’t want you near her,” Carter continued, voice cracking. “Like it knows you, knows what you are, and it’s pushing back. The moment she even hears your name, it’s like gasoline on fire. We can barely keep her restrained.”

  I swallowed hard, fists curling at my sides. Part of me wanted to argue, to demand he let me try. But another part… the part that had seen too many things not of this world, knew he was right. The curse didn’t just cling to Autumn. It recognized me. It despised me. It had to have been engineered specifically to push me away from Autumn and pull her to Patrick… to do anything it needed to get her to move to him. A final “fuck you” from Peter Grimwood.

  Carter leaned against the wall, closing his eyes for a long moment. He looked beaten, a man fighting an enemy he couldn’t lay hands on, trying to keep his daughter from slipping into something unrecognizable.

  And I stood there, knowing he was keeping me out not because he didn’t trust me, but because the thing inside his daughter hated me too much to risk it.

  I steeled myself, making the emotions I felt swell in me go numb, and focusing on the facts. I steadied myself against the heaviness of Carter’s words, but I couldn’t leave it there.

  “Then what’s next?” I asked, voice low. “What are you planning to do to her?”

  Carter’s hand stilled on the chain, his knuckles whitening around the cold metal again. He looked away from me for a long breath, then exhaled, shoulders sagging as though even saying it would cost him more than he had left to give.

  “We’re going to have to put her under,” he said finally. His tone was flat, resigned. “A tranquilizer, strong enough to drop her fast and keep her down. Then we’ll chain her more than last time. This time she won’t break free.” His eyes flicked to me, and there was shame in them. “I hate myself for saying that. For doing that to my own daughter. But it’s the only way we can keep her, and everyone else, safe.”

  I felt my jaw clench, but I let him keep going.

  “Once she’s secured, Raven and her girls, Raine, River, Rose… they’re going to join with Shelta. They’ll link all of their Attuned strength together, focus it. This isn’t brute force anymore. This is precision work. They’re going to dig into her… piece by piece… and call on the fragments of Autumn that are still hers: her will, her love, her humanity. Anything in her that can fight the curse from the inside.”

  His words painted a picture sharp and awful: Autumn bound in chains, her family surrounding her, voices rising in ritual while they stripped at her soul for scraps strong enough to survive the infection.

  “But it’s not simple,” Carter went on, his voice dropping lower, the edges trembling. “This curse… it isn’t just hunger, or rage. It’s an obsession.” The word hung in the air, heavy and toxic.

  I frowned. “Obsession?”

  Carter nodded, slow and grim. “It’s locked itself onto Patrick. Wants him… wants him so badly it’s driving her mad. She’s not just bound by it, Sam. She’s consumed. If she got loose…” His voice faltered. He had to swallow hard before he forced the words out. “She’d kill him. Tear him apart just to claim his life. Not out of malice, but because the curse wants him so desperately, it can’t settle for anything else. It’s twisted her infatuation, her longing, into something poisonous. And it’s getting worse. Every day, it takes more of her. Every day her obsession deepens.”

  The chain in his hands rattled as his grip trembled, and for a moment I couldn’t tell if it was rage, fear, or grief shaking him apart.

  I closed my eyes, pressing back the storm clawing at my chest. Autumn… sweet, welcoming Autumn, turned into something that would kill for obsession. Kill for Patrick, and Carter, her father, was forced to chain her like an animal just to give her a fighting chance against the thing devouring her.

  Carter dragged a hand down his face, his eyes lifted to me, the exhaustion in them tempered by something sharper, resolve, maybe even desperation.

  “Sam,” he said quietly, “there’s something you can do for me.”

  I straightened, my chest tightening. “Name it.”

  He hesitated, like the words tasted wrong in his mouth, then leaned in, voice dropping low. “Is there anything you can do… with… Death?” Carter asked hesitantly. “Like how you did with Eleanor?”

  He was grasping at anything… and it wasn't a bad idea. There were just two problems: Death was radio silent, and that thing with Eleanor was a one-time deal. It was a life for a life when she died. I doubted Death would help me do anything like this. It wasn't something he would be concerned with or even give his time to.

  I shook my head reluctantly. “It doesn’t work like this. He doesn’t do things for me. Not only that, but I can't reach him. He has me… going through some kind of trial right now. Until something changes… I’m on my own…” I apologized. “But I will try… I just don’t think he’ll respond.”

  Carter nodded defeatedly, his only real Hail Mary just swatted down in a single strike. But then he cleared his mind and spoke again. “Find Frank.”

  I blinked. “Frank? He’s not with you… to help Autumn?”

  Carter shook his head. “No. He’s still out there… using Hunter’s Breath, but he’s gone dark. Not even Jane can track him… and if she can’t, that’s not by accident. He doesn’t want to be found. He’s… doing things on his own… dangerous things.”

  The thought of Frank hiding from Jane made the hairs on the back of my neck rise. That meant something.

  Carter pressed on, his voice tightening. “He’s still using… I know it. That stuff makes him faster, stronger… it puts him on par with monsters in the field. But it’s poison, Sam. No one can keep taking it without it burning holes through their body and their mind. I don’t know how much longer he can hold out before it breaks him completely.”

  He glanced around, making sure no one was close enough to hear, then leaned in even further. “Jane and I went digging at his place. We searched the shed behind his house, looking for anything he might’ve left behind. We found papers, notes, and research. Frank’s been investigating something very obscure. He’s on a path that’s leading him against something that could be dangerous.” Carter reached out to grab my shoulder with real conviction. “If you went after him… do you think you could track him? I can’t break away from Autumn,” Carter asked with hope in his eyes.

  I nodded instantly. “I can find him… no problem.” I latched onto the chance to do anything for the family, even if it was this, and was not able to help Autumn.

  “Thank you, Sam. Truly… thank you,” his words seemed to lift his spirits, and even my own.

  But beneath it all, one fear towered above the rest… that I was going to lose Autumn. That no matter how many chains Carter wrapped around her, no matter how many rituals Raven and the others tried, the curse would win, and I’d be powerless to stop it. The thought hollowed me out from the inside, leaving a pit of dread that gnawed and twisted, a gnawing I couldn’t quiet. All the while, I was forming some forbidden relationship with Alex that came from a primal place in my life, while Autumn was fighting against a curse I couldn't see. In that moment… I felt like I had abandoned her. But I also felt like I was abandoning Alex the moment I realized it wasn't the real Autumn that sent me away, and I wanted to return to her side. I had two women who meant so much to me in so many different ways… but things were… complicated.

  I wanted to argue, to demand that Carter let me see her, to insist that I could help break Autumn free. But the truth was plain in his face, in the tremor of his voice when he said my name… it wasn’t time. Not yet. And for now, as much as it tore at me, I had to trust him.

  I gave him a slow nod. “All right. I’ll find Frank.”

  Carter’s eyes softened, relief breaking through the strain. “Thank you. He’s wrapped up in some deep shit… investigating things that could get him into more trouble. Things beyond the whole Clive situation... though it might be tied to him, and what he is here for. Clive thinks there’s a threat coming to the city… and Frank may already be on the trail. We need to stop him until we can all get past this curse, and our family can face it as a whole. Otherwise…” Carter’s face somehow grew even more dire. “Frank could die on his own, and we’d not be there to save him.”

  I nodded. “Okay. But… can I ask you something?” I started a new line of questioning.

  Carter just looked up, ready for whatever I was going to ask.

  “How are you doing… after what I told you?”

  Carter’s eyes grew only slightly darker. “I’m… alright. It was strange in the moment, but it slowly eased in my mind. I believe you, obviously… it was just hard to adjust afterward. Now all this is going on… I haven’t really had time to digest it all,” Carter admitted.

  “Have you told Eleanor… Martin?” I asked.

  Carter shook his head. “No. I was trying to figure out how, but things took off too quickly with everything else. I haven’t even seen Martin since the night I parted with you. He’s been away… I assume with Charles.”

  His words sent a flare of adrenaline through me. The thought of what I had done to Charles surged into my mind. Eventually, that was going to come out. I had killed Charles. How would they view me?

  I didn’t tell him the rest… the gnawing voice in my head that whispered I might already be too late to salvage anything about the Charles situation. I also feared that Autumn’s curse was chewing through the last of her, and chains and rituals wouldn’t hold forever. I didn’t tell him that the pits still called me back, the shadows waiting for me to plunge into them again. That Myordrakien watched the whole conversation, and that dark side of my existence felt almost no need to do anything other than descend into the pits and reap the lives of everything bound to the Primeval of Hunger. That was my Primeval’s sole desire in that moment.

  Instead, I reached out and clasped Carter's shoulder in as comforting a way as I could in that moment. I gave a slight nod and a faint smile. He returned it, placing his hand on me, and then pulling me into a shaky hug. He was breaking… and he needed a friend. I would be that friend… and I would help in the way I could.

  “I’ll find him… and I’ll bring him home,” I promised him.

  I turned away, pulling myself back down the aisle toward the sliding doors. The sunlight hit me as they parted, but it felt pale, washed out, like it couldn’t chase the cold from my bones. I started moving, sending out echoes of pulses from my monstrous senses, every thought aimed at Frank. They reverberated across the city like a sonar blast from hell, scouring the earth for the one beating heart I was looking for. In only seconds… I was on the move. A ping registered in my mind.