The night drifted on, heavy with lingering unease. Joshua and Leroy said their goodbyes, leaving me with my parents, Michael, Rafail, and Miel in the quiet of our apartment. As the door clicked shut behind my friends, the air thickened with an unspoken tension.

Michael sat beside me, his gaze penetrating, studying me in a way that made me feel exposed. "You're glowing..." he said softly, his voice tinged with surprise.

My eyes widened in shock. I had forgotten about that—about the soft glow radiating from me. It seemed so irrelevant in the face of Nick's absence, but now it was undeniable.

Papa, who had been standing nearby, slowly walked closer, his expression grave. "Yes, she is," he murmured. "I tried to ignore it while her friends were here."

Michael's brow furrowed. "Did it start after you realized Nick was missing?"

I nodded, unable to find my voice. The glow seemed to pulse with my worry, an outward manifestation of the fear gnawing at me from within.

Miel sat on my other side, her eyes glinting with curiosity and concern. "This has never happened before," she whispered. "Our amulets don't emit this kind of glow, at least not this strong."

Michael carefully took my hand, turning his focus to the bracelet on my wrist. With deliberate precision, he unclasped it, his touch gentle but purposeful. Once the bracelet was off, his eyes widened even further.

"You're still glowing," he whispered, the astonishment clear in his voice.

The room fell into a thick silence. I felt my heart pound, the glow now feeling like a beacon of something far more complicated than I could comprehend. I struggled to reconcile my concern for Nick with the bizarre spectacle of my own body betraying me with this strange radiance.

I found myself locked in an internal battle. We should be worrying about Nick, not... this. Not my glowing. Right?

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Rafail moved closer, sitting on the edge of the center table, his demeanor calm yet determined. "Arwen, don't worry too much about Nick. Remember, we've been training him for some time. He's strong, and we're confident he's safe."

I narrowed my eyes, studying Rafail and then Michael, feeling a tension building between them that I hadn't noticed before. Michael's posture shifted slightly, his body becoming more rigid, a fact that didn't escape my parents either.

"Erm... well," Michael started, his voice faltering. "I was going to mention it earlier, but, you know... we had visitors, and Arwen was... glowing." He glanced at me apologetically. "It distracted me."

"Please, speak up," my mom's voice broke through, strained, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. Her fear for Nick was palpable, a mirror to my own.

Michael offered a small, reassuring smile, but his eyes remained serious. "Nick has been accepted into the circle," he said, pausing to let the weight of his words sink in. "We were planning to announce it this coming Thanksgiving. He wanted to share the news with you himself. Once someone is part of the Circulus de Sangre Real, we become... connected. Like brothers and sisters."

My mind raced to keep up. "What do you mean, 'connected'? How would you know?"

Michael took a deep breath. "Well, aside from the amulets we all wear, I have permission from our leader to sense each of our life essences. When you removed your bracelet, I felt yours. But with the inner circle, especially warriors like Nick... it's a deeper bond."

"A warrior?" My mom's voice cracked as she exclaimed the word, and before any of us could respond, she burst into tears.

I felt a jolt of panic rise in me, and I turned to Michael, my voice trembling. "What does it mean to be a warrior? Why is she so upset?"

Papa quickly moved to console my mother, wrapping his arms around her in a protective embrace. His silence was heavy, as though he understood something that I did not.

Michael's expression softened, though his eyes flickered with a trace of guilt. "Being a warrior in the inner circle is an honor, Arwen, but it also comes with risks. It means Nick is trained for combat, for protecting the circle and its members." He hesitated, clearly aware of how much weight his words carried. "It means he faces danger—more than the rest of us."

The room seemed to freeze in that moment. My heart dropped, and a cold fear gripped me as the implications of Michael's words settled in. My brother wasn't just missing—he was involved in something much bigger, something dangerous.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked between my parents and Michael, feeling more lost than ever. My mother sobbed quietly into Papa's shoulder, her fears for Nick now confirmed, while Michael sat in silence, knowing no amount of words could ease the worry now etched in all of our hearts.

And I... I just kept glowing, as if the universe itself was responding to the uncertainty, the fear, and the love that intertwined in that room.