When Lili settled back into the car, she immediately noticed the man seated across from her. He was in his early forties, gaunt and pale, with the weariness of a man used to surviving off fear. The moment his eyes met hers, his breath caught. A muscle in his jaw twitched, and his gaze darted around the interior of the vehicle, searching for an exit that didn’t exist.
Fosin slid into the seat beside her with a calm, composed air that only sharpened the pressure in the car. Goran followed from the other side, shutting the door with a final click. As the engine purred to life and the vehicle lurched forward, the car was drenched in silence heavy enough to choke.
“You know why you’re here,” Fosin said as he turned his head toward the man.
“I—I don’t!” the man stammered. His voice cracked, too high, too quick. “I told you already—I like my head where it is! I’d never cross you!”
Lili didn’t say a word. She simply smiled. That smile alone made the man emit a panicked, whimpering sound—something closer to a wounded animal than a human being.
Fosin didn’t flinch. “Ofo,” he said evenly. “Let me make this perfectly clear. You’re coming with us. And if I don’t get the answers I’m looking for…” He leaned back slightly, letting the implication hang in the air. “…I’ll let her do whatever she wants with you.”
Ofo flinched. His hands fumbled in his lap, and sweat began to bead along his forehead.
Lili tilted her head and let her smirk deepen. “What’s the matter, Mister?” she purred. A dagger materialized from her coat and began spinning lazily in the air between them, circling.
“Don’t think I don’t know how to have some fun,” she whispered, leaning in ever so slightly. As her eyes bled into a brilliant, burning red, she watched with satisfaction as Ofo recoiled, panic erupting across his face.
Her voice remained low, coaxing. “Now… how about you stop lying before I decide to stop pretending to care whether you scream.”
The rest of the drive was suffocatingly silent.
Ofo shrank back into his seat, knuckles white as he gripped the edge of the leather cushion. Every bump in the road made him twitch. Every slow exhale from Lili felt like a noose tightening around his neck.
She didn’t say a word. Her eyes—still glowing red—stayed fixed on him. Not once did she blink. Not once did she glance away. The amused smirk remained on her lips, cruelly subtle, and it was more than enough to keep the man sweating through his shirt. By the time they reached the gates of the Torin estate, his face had drained of all color.
Fosin stepped out first, followed by Goran. Lili slid out last, and as she stood—tall, poised, cloaked in leather and shadow—Ofo flinched and scrambled out behind her, guided roughly by one of the guards.
They descended the narrow stairwell into the bowels of the Torin mansion. The air grew colder, heavier, as the light faded with each step. At the bottom, past a hallway of barred cells, they entered a windowless room. The heavy door slammed shut behind them.
“Sit,” Fosin said flatly.
Ofo hesitated just for a moment too long—until the shifting presence behind Fosin made him flinch. He looked at Lili, her face masked in unreadable calm, hands folded behind her back. He sat.
Fosin remained standing. “You know why you’re here,” he began, voice low and sharpened. “We were attacked. Not once. Twice. Gifted assaults. Coordinated. And you’ve been quiet lately, Ofo. Too quiet.”
“I told you, I wouldn’t cross you,” Ofo said quickly, panic seeping into his voice. “I don’t know anything about any attacks on you.”
“No strange clients?” Fosin asked. “No names, no unusual trades—nothing that stood out to you?”
“I deal with people who don’t want to be remembered,” Ofo said, almost trembling now. “That doesn’t mean I knew what they planned.”
A long silence followed. Fosin didn’t blink. Then he reached into the inner pocket of his coat and pulled something small from it—a bullet. Sleek. Black. With faint engravings that shimmered like scorched veins under the light.
Even Lili tilted her head. Fosin laid the bullet down on the metal table between them.
Ofo’s eyes darted to it, then to Fosin’s face. “What is that?” he asked cautiously. “Why are you showing me this?”
Fosin ignored the question. “Death,” he said without turning his head.
Lili stepped forward. Removing her glove, Lili pricked the tip of her finger with the edge of her dagger and let a single droplet of her blood fall onto the bullet.
It struck with a soft hiss. Immediately, the bullet reacted.
Black tendrils—dark, sinewy, and unnatural—unfurled from the grooves of the bullet and slithered outward in a slow, pulsating web. They wrapped around the drop of blood like hungry roots, pulling it inward, feeding on it. The droplet turned darker and darker—until it was no longer red, but obsidian. As if the bullet had consumed its essence completely.
Even Lili blinked, caught off guard by the strange transformation.
Ofo recoiled, his chair scraping the floor. “What the hell is that?! That’s not normal! That’s—”
“No,” Fosin interrupted coldly. “It’s not. And if I find out you sold something like this—”
Lili smiled faintly behind her mask. She didn’t need to speak. The threat was already loud enough.
“Would I have reacted like this if I’d seen that thing before!?” Ofo cried out, voice rising with panic. He half-stood from his chair before catching himself. His wide eyes stayed locked on the bullet like it might come alive again.
It took several long moments for Ofo to regain control over his breathing. He pressed trembling fingers against his forehead, muttering something under his breath before finally lifting his gaze to Fosin.
“I’ll reach out to my contacts,” he said shakily. “There are people I deal with who specialize in… rare pieces. If anyone’s heard of something like this—of a bullet that reacts to blood—I’ll find them. And if they know anything, the information is yours.”
Fosin nodded once. “Good.” Then his tone dropped colder, more final. “But until then, you stay here.”
“What?” Ofo’s voice cracked.
“Your calls will be monitored,” Fosin continued. “Every word. Every name. If you try to warn someone—if you so much as hint that we’re coming—you’ll never leave this room again. Understood?”
Ofo opened his mouth to protest, but no sound came out. His lips trembled before he pressed them into a hard, pale line. After a moment, he gave a short, reluctant nod.
Fosin didn’t wait for more. He turned on his heel and walked out of the interrogation room, the sound of his footsteps echoing against the concrete floor.
Lili lingered a moment longer. Her gaze bored into Ofo. Then she followed Fosin, her long coat sweeping behind her like the tail of a shadow.
Outside the room, a guard stood waiting. As the two passed him, he stepped forward and shut the thick steel door with a hollow clang.
Ofo was left alone inside, the dim light casting long shadows across the walls as he stared at the cursed bullet on the table—still pulsing faintly with the remnants of Princess Of Death blood…
***
They walked in silence at first, their footsteps echoing in the narrow stairwell as they ascended from the basement. The air was heavier now—charged not with violence, but with something subtler. Unspoken thoughts. Unasked questions. By the time they reached the top of the stairs, Fosin stopped. Without warning, he turned sharply, forcing her to halt to avoid walking into him.
“What was Deran’s right hand doing near you, Lili?” His voice wasn’t raised, but there was steel behind it—sharp, cold, and unmistakably dangerous.
Lili stared at him for a moment. Then she exhaled slowly, already feeling the corner she was backed into. “I told you already,” Lili said, her tone cool but firm. “He tried to attack me while I was fighting that fire freak.”
She didn’t blink as she met Fosin’s gaze, though her heart beat a little too fast for her liking. “He showed up right after I landed a hit. I didn’t even see him coming until he was already there.”
Fosin’s eyes narrowed slightly—not in disbelief, but in the way someone did when they were calculating the spaces between the words. The unspoken parts.
“I took him down before he could do anything,” she added, gesturing vaguely with her chin toward the basement.
She said nothing about the brief truce. Nothing about the ice that had saved her life.
Lili tensed the moment Fosin turned fully toward her. She barely had time to brace herself before his hand slammed into her abdomen.
The air shot from her lungs. Pain exploded through her core and radiated to her injured shoulder. Her vision blurred, the edges going dark for a heartbeat. She stumbled, and Fosin didn’t let up—he grabbed her and shoved her hard against the wall.
Her body hit the stone with a dull thud, her breath shallow and shaky.
“How many times,” Fosin growled, his face twisted with fury, “have we told you to stay away from them?”
Lili winced but didn’t look away. Her pride kept her upright even as her knees screamed to give out. She clenched her jaw, refusing to let him see how much it hurt.
“I can’t believe you’re blaming me because he showed up!” she snapped, her voice sharp despite the pain searing through her. “What—are you going to beat me every time someone so much as looks at me the wrong way now?”
Her chest rose and fell with shaky breaths, her eyes narrowing as she pushed herself off the wall, still held partly in place by his grip.
“I kept my word,” she continued, her voice lower now, more controlled—but no less furious. “I stayed away. I’ve done everything you asked of me. But maybe instead of questioning me, you should be asking what it means that they’re the ones coming to us now.”
She leaned forward just slightly, meeting his gaze with fire of her own.
“Maybe they’re tired of waiting. Maybe they’re done playing in the shadows and trying to provoke us. And if that’s true…” Her voice tightened. “Then we’re already losing.”
The silence that followed crackled with tension—between fear, defiance, and something unspoken that always lingered between them.
Fosin didn’t move for a moment. His hand was still on her, but the strength behind it had lessened.
“You think I don’t know that?” he finally said in low tone. “You think I don’t lie awake, wondering when they’ll finally stop playing games and strike for real?”
He let her go, stepping back with a sharp breath through his nose.
“But I can’t have cracks in my line, Lili. Not from you. You’re too valuable—and too visible. If Deran’s men shows up near you again, the whispers turn into accusations. And if you fall out of line…” He paused, eyes hardening again. “I won’t be able to protect you. Not even if I want to.”
There. It slipped through—the truth buried under command and control. Not a threat. A warning. And somewhere beneath it, something dangerously close to care.
He turned and started back up the stairs, leaving her to breathe through the weight of his words.
Lili stayed frozen where he left her. Her hands curled into fists at her sides, trembling—not with fear, but restraint. Not with weakness, but calculation.
If Aaron talks… She drew in a slow breath, eyes fixed on the wall ahead of her, but seeing only the cell door two floors below. She didn’t know how long he’d be kept there. Either way, the risk was too great. She should’ve killed him right after the fight. The Princess of Death never hesitate. But Lili had. And now she had to fix it.
She rolled her shoulders slowly, feeling the faint throb from her healing wound. Her body wasn’t at its full strength. But her will?
She turned and began down the corridor, silent and sure, already plotting which stairwell would be least guarded, how long the guards’ rotations lasted, and if she could get in before Aaron’s bruises faded enough for him to wake. She had one chance to tie this loose end before it unraveled the whole damn thing.
She reached the lower level without detection, a faint pulse of pain in her shoulder reminding her she didn’t have long. One hand rested on the wall for balance as she reached the bottom stair, just a few more turns remained. The cell was at the far end, tucked left behind the old generator room.
Then she heard it. Torin’s voice. It came from just around the corner. Calm, low, but unmistakably firm. He was speaking to two guards. Lili’s body tensed.
“Make sure he doesn’t bleed out in there,” Torin said. “I want him breathing when Fosin starts asking the real questions.”
“Yes, sir,” one of the guards responded.
Her plan shattered in an instant. A second longer, and she might have done it. Might have slit Aaron’s throat in the dark and left the body for the morning shift to find. But now? Torin being here changed everything.
She slowly stepped backward. Her lips pressed into a tight line. She couldn’t make the move tonight. Not with Torin this close.
You got lucky, she thought bitterly, picturing Aaron’s unconscious body in the cell. But luck runs out.
***
When Lili emerged from the basement into the first floor, the cool air of the hallway barely helped steady her heartbeat. Her boots clicked softly against the polished floor—too loud for how exposed she felt. And then she saw him.
Goran stood there, waiting. Arms crossed. Watching. She halted mid-step.
“I’m guessing the mission to keep him quiet failed?” he asked in a low, almost amused voice.
A sharp breath hissed through her teeth, but she ignored it. Her uninjured arm shot forward, grabbing Goran by the collar and yanking him close.
“One word about it,” she whispered, voice coiled with venom, “and I will kill you. You hear me?”
Goran didn’t flinch. Instead, he smiled. That arrogant, knowing smirk made her want to drive her blade through his throat.
“I’m your partner, sweetheart,” he said smoothly. “That means I have to watch your back. Because if you fall… I might fall with you.”
Lili’s fingers twitched slightly on his collar until she finally let him go with a shove.
“Let me take care of him for you,” Goran offered, voice softer—almost sincere.
That froze her for a second. Her eyes searched his face. Was that manipulation? Pity? Strategy?
She gave a tight, cautious smile.
“Tempting,” she said. “But I don’t need your help cleaning up my messes. Especially when I’m not sure whose side you’re really on.”
Goran tilted his head, the smirk never leaving his lips.
“You don’t know whose side I’m on?” he repeated, his tone edged with mock hurt. Then he let out a sound—half-laugh, half-scoff. A casual, almost cruel noise. “Haven’t I proved myself already?”
Lili’s stare didn’t waver, but her silence was answer enough.
“I’ve followed you into hell more than once.”
Lili’s eyes stayed fixed on his, unreadable.
He smiled again—this time less mocking, almost sad. “Tell me to back off, and I will,” he said, voice low. “But don’t stand there acting like I’m working against you.”
Something flickered across Lili’s face. A crack in the mask—just for a second. Not anger. Not defiance. Something quieter. Sadness. Maybe even hurt.
It sat in her eyes like an old bruise—familiar and hidden deep.
She said nothing. Didn’t give him the satisfaction of a word or even a nod. Just turned her back to him and walked away, each step up the stairs feeling heavier than the last.
Goran watched her go. Whatever he had hoped to see—he didn’t get it…
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