Zina had almost reached the bend in the walking trail when she saw the little man.
For several seconds, she wondered if exhaustion had finally caught up with her.
She slowed her pace, lowering the volume of the music playing through one earbud as she watched him from a distance.
He stood beside a young woman near one of the old benches, his small frame dressed in a dark coat that looked far too well made for the setting.
He was holding a handful of tiny white flowers while the woman beside him laughed at something he had said.
There was nothing particularly threatening about them.
It was simply the fact that the man was barely three feet tall.
Zina stopped.
The little man looked up.
Their eyes met.
He did not look surprised to see her.
That was what unsettled her most.
The young woman noticed Zina a moment later.
Her smile disappeared, replaced by an expression of recognition so immediate that Zina instinctively checked behind herself to see if someone else was standing there.
There wasn’t.
The woman walked toward her.
Zina remained where she was, cautious but curious.
“You’re Zina.”
It wasn’t a question.
Zina removed her earbud completely.
“Do I know you?”
“No.” The woman smiled again, softer this time.
“But I’ve been waiting to meet you.”
Zina studied her carefully.
She looked young, perhaps twenty-two or twenty-three, with an open face, bright eyes and a kind of natural warmth that made it difficult to imagine her being dangerous.
She wore simple clothes, nothing remarkable, yet there was something about her presence that made Zina’s instincts refuse to settle.
The little man had not moved.
His attention remained fixed on Zina.
“That’s usually the part where people explain why they’ve been waiting for me,” Zina said.
The woman laughed quietly.
“Fair enough. I’m Daisy.”
She held out her hand.
Zina hesitated for a moment before taking it.
Daisy’s fingers curled around hers.
The change was immediate.
Daisy’s expression vanished.
Her body went rigid, and the flower she had been holding slipped from her other hand and landed against the grass.
Zina felt Daisy’s grip tighten painfully.
“Daisy?”
The young woman’s eyes rolled upward until nothing remained but white.
Zina instinctively tried to pull away.
The little man moved.
He crossed the distance between them with such unnatural speed that Zina barely had time to register it.
One moment he was beside the bench; the next he stood directly in front of Daisy, his face suddenly stripped of the warmth she had seen earlier.
“Daisy,” he said quietly.
“What do you see?”
Daisy didn’t answer.
Her breathing had become shallow, her eyes still completely white.
Zina stared at her, heart beating faster.
“What is happening to her?”
The little man looked at Zina.
“Don’t let go.”
“I was actually planning to.”
“Don’t.”
There was no humor in his voice.
No threat either.
Zina stayed still.
Daisy’s lips parted.
“I can’t see it.”
The little man’s expression tightened.
“See what?”
“You.”
Zina frowned.
Daisy’s eyes remained white as she continued speaking, though her voice had become distant, almost as if she were talking from somewhere far away.
“I see the road around you. I see what has already happened. I see what is coming for the people standing near you.”
Her fingers trembled around Zina’s hand.
“But when I look beyond you…”
Daisy swallowed.
“There is nothing.”
The little man’s gaze shifted toward Zina.
Daisy suddenly inhaled sharply.
“I can’t see past her.”
Her eyes returned to normal.
She blinked several times, looking disoriented before finally realizing she was still holding Zina’s hand.
She released it immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
Zina stared at her.
Daisy looked genuinely shaken now.
“What did you see?”
Daisy rubbed her palm against her trousers, as though trying to rid herself of a sensation.
“I don’t know.”
“You just said you couldn’t see past me.”
“I know.”
“Then what does that mean?”
Daisy looked at her for a long moment.
“It means I’ve never seen anything like you.”
Zina almost laughed, but there was nothing funny about the expression on Daisy’s face.
“That’s becoming a very common sentence in my life.”
Daisy’s mouth curved slightly.
“I imagine it is.”
The little man remained silent beside them.
Zina turned toward him.
“And you are?”
He regarded her without the slightest discomfort.
“Finn.”
She waited.
He did not elaborate.
Zina raised an eyebrow.
“That’s it?”
“It’s enough for now.”
Despite herself, Zina almost smiled.
Almost.
There was something strange about Finn.
There was age in his eyes that did not belong on such a young-looking face.
He carried himself with the quiet confidence of someone who had witnessed too many centuries to be impressed by ordinary things.
Even his silence seemed deliberate.
Daisy glanced at him.
“He doesn’t talk much.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“He talks when it matters.”
Finn gave Daisy a brief look.
“She doesn’t need an introduction to me.”
Zina caught the implication.
“You two have known each other for a while.”
Daisy smiled.
“A very long while.”
“How long?”
Daisy hesitated.
Finn answered instead.
“Long enough.”
Zina looked between them.
“Everyone in my life has suddenly become very fond of mysterious answers.”
Daisy laughed, and this time the sound was genuine.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t sound sorry.”
“I’m not.”
That earned the smallest smile from Zina.
For the first time since approaching them, the tension in her shoulders eased.
Daisy bent down and picked up the flower she had dropped.
She held it out to Zina.
“You should keep this.”
Zina looked at the small white flower.
“Why?”
“Because I brought it for you.”
“You knew I’d be here.”
Daisy nodded.
“I did.”
“How?”
Daisy’s smile faded slightly.
“I saw you.”
“In a vision?”
“Yes.”
Zina looked at her more carefully.
“And how many times have you seen me?”
“Enough to know that meeting you was going to happen.”
That answer should have frightened her.
Instead, Zina felt something else an exhausted curiosity she had become almost incapable of suppressing.
Her father had left secrets behind.
Damien knew things he couldn’t always explain.
Luca appeared and disappeared with the ease of a man who seemed to have been watching her life from the edges long before she noticed him.
Now this girl was telling her she had seen Zina before they had ever met.
“I want answers,” Zina said quietly.
Daisy looked up.
“So do I.”
Before Zina could respond, a familiar voice came from behind them.
“You always did have a talent for finding the people who should have remained hidden.”
Zina turned.
Luca stood several feet away, hands tucked casually into the pockets of his coat, his expression carrying the faint amusement she had come to associate with him.
She stared at him.
“You know her.”
Luca’s gaze moved to Daisy.
For the first time, his usual humor softened into something older.
“Yes.”
Daisy smiled.
“Hello, Luca.”
He looked at her for a moment before returning the smile.
“Hello, Daisy.”
There was history between them.
Zina could see it immediately not the polite familiarity of two acquaintances who happened to share a past, but the ease of people who had known each other long enough to stop needing explanations for every silence.
Zina looked from one to the other.
“How long have you two known each other?”
Daisy glanced at Luca.
Luca’s expression became unreadable.
“Long enough,” he said.
Zina gave him an unimpressed look.
“You’re both irritating.”
Daisy laughed.
Luca’s mouth curved.
“I was beginning to think you’d never say it.”
Zina folded her arms.
“What does Daisy know about me?”
The humor disappeared from Luca’s face.
He looked at Daisy, then back at Zina.
“That’s a conversation you should have with her.”
“You’re not answering me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because she is the one who saw you.”
Zina studied him.
“And you already knew she would.”
Luca said nothing.
That silence answered more than she wanted it to.
Daisy stepped closer, still holding the flower.
“I don’t have all the answers, Zina.”
“Neither does anyone else, apparently.”
“But I can tell you one thing.”
Zina waited.
Daisy placed the flower in her hand.
“When I saw you before today, I was afraid of what I couldn’t see.”
Zina looked down at the flower.
“And now?”
Daisy met her eyes.
“Now I’m more interested in finding out why.”
Luca watched them quietly.
Finn stood beside Daisy, his attention fixed on Zina with the same unreadable patience he had shown from the beginning.
Zina closed her fingers around the flower.
For the first time in weeks, she had met someone who didn’t claim to understand what was happening to her.
She had met someone who admitted she didn’t.
Strangely, that made Zina trust her more.
And somewhere beneath that relief was another feeling she couldn’t name yet the uneasy certainty that meeting Daisy had not been an accident.
It was the beginning of an answer.
Or the beginning of a much bigger question.