I turned slowly, forcing myself to stay controlled even though every instinct in me was already on edge, reacting to a presence that didn't belong to the chaotic danger I had first assumed.
This was not rogue energy.
It was too stable for that, too contained, too deliberate in a way that made it far more unsettling.
The man standing at the end of the alley did not move immediately, yet there was something in the way he held himself that made distance feel meaningless, as if the space between us existed only because he had chosen not to close it.
Up close, the difference became unmistakable.
He looked human in every visible way, blending seamlessly into the structure of the city, but there was nothing ordinary about the quiet precision in his posture or the awareness in his gaze. It was the kind of presence that did not need to announce itself to be felt.
