Page 47 of The Baker’s Shadow

“What is he, Malak? What’s under that face?”

“I don’t know.” I run a hand through my hair. The gesture feels human. Wrong for what I am. “But he’s old. Older than me, maybe. And he’s been hiding here a long time. Playing human. Playing respectable.”

“Why now? Why come after us?”

“Because you’re visible. Because the baby is making waves.” I look at her stomach. At the life growing there. Half mine. Half hers. All impossible. “Because he’s afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Of what you’re becoming.”

I’m already moving before she can ask more. Grabbing my coat from the hook by the back door.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to check the barrier. See if he’s already started.” My hands won’t stay still. “If he has, if there’s damage...”

“Now?”

“Now.”

I’m out the door before she can stop me.

The trees close around me immediately. The path to the Hollow is one I could walk blind. I’ve walked it for centuries.

But today it feels different. Wrong.

The air tastes like decay.

I run.

The Hollow appears through the trees. My domain. My prison. My purpose.

The outer wards are visible to me. Always have been. Lines of light and shadow woven into the fabric of reality. Keeping the corruption contained.

Except now there are gaps.

Small ones. Hairline fractures. But they’re spreading.

Someone has been pulling at the threads. Testing. Probing.

I move to the nearest weak point. Press my hand against the barrier. Feel the magic shudder under my touch.

It’s old. Older than me. Older than anything I know how to fix.

I can shore it up. Temporarily. Pour my own power into the cracks. But if someone keeps pulling, keeps testing...

The barrier will fail.

And everything inside will get out.

I work for hours. Moving from weak point to weak point. Patching. Reinforcing. Pouring myself into the wards until my hands shake and my vision blurs.

It’s not enough.

It will never be enough.

By the time I make it back to the bakery, it’s full dark. My shirt is torn. Mud on my boots. Scratches on my hands from the thorns that grow thick near the Hollow’s edge.