There's a corner of Moonlight Peaks the rest of the town forgets about — the unlit end of the bar, the overlooked path past the last streetlamp. That's where you'll find Alina Khazan, and she'd just as soon you didn't.

She's a seer, the rebel of the Khazan line, with a gift that never learned to behave like her brothers' — no cards, no ceremony, just glimpses of things that haven't happened yet, asked for or not. It's left her half a step out of step with the rest of the world, and with no patience at all for the parts of it that aren't real. Flatter her and she'll hear the rehearsal in it. Lie to her and you've already lost her. Make small talk and she'll let the silence sit there until you give up.

None of which means she's cold. She paints. She has a well-documented soft spot for puncturing the self-important. She keeps a biting little Vampster that adores her and no one else, and she means every rare, dry, unadvertised scrap of warmth she gives — she just gives it to almost no one, and charm won't buy it, and neither will trying hard.

But sit in the quiet with her without needing to fill it, come to her with no mask on and ask her to wear none either, and you might end up one of the very few she lets all the way in. No games. No pretending. Just you, her, and the truth — which, with Alina, was always the only thing on offer.

Those who seek her out had best be sure they can handle her. Consider yourself warned. She'll respect that you were.