When Lili stepped into the mansion, she pulled down her hood but kept her mask on. She was tense, her body still aching from the fight, and her mind replaying every movement of the attackers cloaked in shadow.
Torin and Fosin were already waiting in the hall, and without needing to exchange a word, the three of them moved together toward the study. The heavy door closed behind them with a thud, sealing the silence.
Torin took the seat behind his desk. Fosin remained standing, arms crossed, and Lili leaned silently against the wall.
“You were silent longer than I expected,” Fosin finally said. “What happened?”
Lili hesitated. “The attackers weren’t normal. They used the shadows to move and strike. They felt… different. Not like any Gifted I’ve fought before.”
Torin frowned but said nothing yet.
“I had to mute the channel mid-fight,” she continued. “Didn’t want the noise distracting me.”
Fosin’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I heard a male voice before you cut the feed.” That made her tense. A beat passed before she spoke. “Yeah,” she admitted. “Looks like he was looking for Helena. You told me not to harm her. So… I didn’t harm him either.”
Fosin’s gaze sharpened, but he didn’t speak. Torin leaned forward instead. “Who was he?”
“I don’t know his name,” Lili lied smoothly. “But he has powers familiar to that fire freak. He was protecting her.”
“And you just let them go?” Torin growled.
“I followed Fosin orders,” she said calmly. “Helena’s safe. He wasn’t attacking her. He turned his back to me.”
“You should’ve taken him out.”
“I would do it with pleasure, but if I wouldn’t have followed orders, it wouldn’t be a good outcome either.” She spoke.
Silence interrupted the room.
Then Fosin spoke, his voice quiet but firm. “Take off your mask.”
Lili’s eyes snapped to him, caught completely off guard. “What?”
“I heard what Helena said about the bullet,” Fosin continued, unmoved. “And I noticed—you haven’t taken off the mask, not even once since you came back. Usually, you do. Take it off.”
She stiffened where she stood, fingers twitching slightly at her sides. “It’s not important.”
“It is to me,” he replied. “If something’s wrong, I need to know. We can’t afford surprises.”
Lili hesitated, her breath caught for a second longer than it should have been. Every instinct screamed to keep the mask on, to hide what was underneath. But Fosin didn’t break eye contact, and Torin was watching too now, waiting for her next move.
Finally, she reached up and peeled the mask away.
The moment it came off, the dim light revealed what she’d been hiding—her skin was pale, eyes sunken with fatigue, and a faint, unnatural tint traced the veins near her neck and jaw. A bruise-like shadow still marked her shoulder from where the bullet had struck.
Neither man spoke right away. The sight said enough. Torin’s jaw tensed, and Fosin’s expression darkened with something like concern, calculation, maybe both.
“We need to figure out what that bullet really did to you,” Fosin said.
“And if we can’t?” Lili asked, her voice sharp, tired.
“Then we find someone who can,” Fosin said, his tone more like a command than a reassurance.
Lili let out a dry, humorless breath. Her gaze dropped for a moment before she muttered under it, “And here I thought you’d just put a bullet through my head.”
Fosin didn’t react immediately. The silence that followed wasn’t cold—it was heavy, considering. Torin glanced sideways at his son, but said nothing.
Fosin stepped closer, his voice quieter now, but edged with something sharper. “If I wanted you dead, Lili, I wouldn’t have waited this long.”
She met his eyes again, wary, her usual walls cracking just a little. “Maybe you will be waiting to see if I’d turn into one of those things.”
He didn’t flinch. “If that ever happens, I won’t let anyone else pull the trigger.”
The room went still.
It was both a threat and a strange kind of vow—and Lili didn’t quite know how to answer it.
“Very well,” she said at last, her voice returning to that familiar cold edge. She pulled the mask back over her face, hiding whatever flicker of emotion had briefly slipped through. “For tonight, I’ll go on the lookout,” she said, already turning toward the door. “If that firefreak tries to blow up something else, it’ll be the last time he gets the chance.“
Neither Fosin nor Torin moved to stop her. The silence that followed was heavy—tense, but ultimately accepting. They both knew better than to try and rein her in once her mind was set.
She didn’t wait for permission. Because tonight, she needed to move. To think. To hunt.
And more importantly—to find even the faintest flicker of a lead that might save her from what was quietly consuming her from the inside out.
That meant doing things her way. Following threads neither Torin nor Fosin would approve of. Possibilities they wouldn’t even consider. She was running out of time—and secrets had always been her only currency…
***
Lili was driving fast, the city lights streaking past the windshield as she cut through the near-empty streets. She was still fully dressed in her Princess of Death attire—mask, dark layers, the silent weight of her blade just a thought away.
Then something flickered in the rearview mirror—a flash of unnatural movement—and instinct screamed through her before her brain could catch up.
A split second later, Notori landed hard on the hood of her car, the impact shaking the entire frame. Her eyes flew wide. His body was crouched, flames already beginning to coil in one palm. She swerved sharply, tires screeching as the wheel jerked in her hands, trying to throw him off.
She summoned her blade, the air around her pulsing as it shimmered into existence beside her. Notori sprang to the side and to her utter disbelief, the passenger door was wrenched open. He slipped into the seat beside her, slamming the door shut behind.
Lili’s pulse thundered in her ears. Her blade hovered near his throat, unmoving only because she hadn’t given the command—yet.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she hissed, her voice razor-edged, breath shallow from the sudden burst of panic.
Notori didn’t flinch. The fire still danced lazily around his fingers, but his gaze was steady—focused, not hostile.
“We need to talk,” he said simply. “And you weren’t exactly going to stop if I asked nicely.”
Lili shot him a skeptical look. Her instincts screamed to drive him straight into a wall, to end this complication before it grew teeth—but rationality, as always, clawed its way to the front.
She inhaled slowly, steadying her pulse. “Not here,” she said coolly, then pulled the car into a quiet side alley and killed the engine.
Without waiting, she stepped out into the night, the door shutting with a solid thud. The city’s hum was dull here, swallowed by shadow and silence. She didn’t look back, but through a sidelong glance, she saw him follow—cautious, but unafraid.
By the time Notori caught up, she was gone from view. He blinked, scanning the space—and then looked up just in time to spot her silhouette already perched on the rooftop above him. The wind tugged at her coat, and the faint glint of moonlight touched the edge of her hovering blade.
“Move fast or fall behind,” she called down, voice low but clear. “Your choice.”
Notori let out a quiet scoff but didn’t argue. With a surge of flame under his feet, he launched himself upward, landing beside her on the rooftop.
Lili didn’t move immediately. Her gaze swept the skyline. The wind tousled loose strands of her hair, but she kept her stance rooted, focused.
“I didn’t come to fight,” Notori said, voice softer now that they were away from prying eyes. “If I did, I wouldn’t have jumped into your car. You know that.”
“I know a lot of things,” Lili replied, without looking at him. “And I also know that people who come with good intentions don’t wave a fire at moving vehicles.”
He sighed, clearly frustrated. “You wouldn’t have stopped otherwise.”
Lili finally turned toward him, her blade still floating silently at her side, shimmering faintly in the night. “You have five minutes,” she said. “Talk.”
Notori hesitated. “There’s something coming. Bigger than Deran, bigger than your little mafia wars. The people behind those shadows… Someone’s building something worse. Something meant for Gifted.”
Lili narrowed her eyes, her pulse quickening at the confirmation. “You’re late with that warning.”
“No,” he said firmly. “I’m early. Whatever you saw tonight? That was a test run. And if Helena’s right, it’s just the beggining.”
For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then Lili’s voice dropped to a quiet growl. “And what exactly do you want from me?”
“Help,” he said, simply. “Or at least… don’t get in my way.” He looked at her with something close to honesty. “If we don’t work together, we’re all dead.”
Lili stared at him. Then her blade slowly lowered to her side. “I don’t trust you,” she said, her voice low but firm. “But I don’t ignore warnings either.”
Notori gave a slow nod. “That’s good enough.”
The rooftop fell silent again, broken only by the distant hum of traffic and the occasional gust of wind tugging at their coats. The city below buzzed with life, but Lili’s mind was already moving far beyond it—into darker alleys and deeper puzzles. She wasn’t just chasing shadows anymore; she was calculating where they might strike next.
“But we need to make a few things clear,” she said, cutting through the silence with a sudden edge. She turned to face him fully now, red eyes narrowed under the mask. “First, you won’t attack our facilities again. If this thing you’re warning me about is real, we can’t afford to burn each other down before it arrives.”
Notori crossed his arms, the flame around his hand fading into embers. “Fine.”
“Second,” Lili continued, her voice colder now, “whatever this is you’re trying to stop, whatever plan you’re building—I’m in. But only me. You don’t get to drag my boss into this. I’m not putting them on a battlefield they don’t understand.”
Notori tilted his head slightly. “You think they wouldn’t understand? Or that they’d stand in the way?”
“Both,” she said bluntly. “They protect what they’ve built. I protect what’s mine. And right now, that includes keeping this quiet.”
A tense silence stretched between them. Then Notori gave a single nod. “Agreed. For now, you’re my contact. But don’t expect me to pull punches if your people get in the way.”
“They won’t,” Lili said, her voice steady but sharp. “Because I won’t let them.”
Behind her, the blade hovered once more, a silent threat outlined in moonlight. She turned toward the edge of the rooftop, her figure already half-shadowed by the city’s glow, when Notori’s voice caught her again.
“You aren’t the only one with conditions,” he said. “Let my friend out.”
She paused, her shoulders stiffening. Slowly, she glanced back over her shoulder. “Your friend?” she echoed, brows lifting behind the mask. A dry, bitter smile spread across her lips. “Hard to believe someone like you actually has one.”
Notori didn’t flinch. “Ofo,” he said, simply. “He’s still alive. And I know you’re holding him.”
The name hit harder than she expected. Lili’s expression didn’t change, but her heart kicked in her chest. Of course it would be him. Of all people.
“That’s not a small favor,” she said, the cold amusement gone from her voice. “You don’t just drop a name like that and expect I’ll nod and walk away.”
“I’m not expecting anything for free,” Notori shot back. “I fought beside you. And I didn’t kill you when I had the chance. I even warned you. You think I did all that for fun?”
Lili turned fully to face him now, her eyes unreadable in the shadows. “You think Fosin or Torin will just let me waltz someone like Ofo out of a secured room? I’m risking my life just entertaining this conversation.”
“Then maybe that’s what it takes,” he said, jaw tightening. “But if you leave him in there, don’t expect me to lift a finger the next time those shadow things tear through your people.”
They stood in silence for a breath. The wind moved between them, pushing Lili’s coat against her legs, catching the edge of her blade.
She sighed through her nose. “No promises,” she said after a long moment. “But I’ll see what I can do.”
“Soon,” Notori added firmly. “Don’t wait until it’s too late.”
She didn’t answer. Just kept walking toward the edge of the rooftop, her coat catching in the wind, blade trailing behind. But inside, her thoughts twisted in uncomfortable ways. Notori’s warning had been clear—and so had his desperation. Which meant Ofo wasn’t just a name from the past. He was leverage. A key. Possibly something much more.
Behind her, Notori reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small device. He stepped forward, raising it into her view—a compact earpiece, sleek and dark, no visible markings.
Lili turned her head slightly, catching the shape of it. Then, she let out a low chuckle.
“You think I’m stupid enough to accept something like that from a Gifted?” she asked, voice dry with disbelief. “That’s how people end up dead—or worse.”
“It’s not trackable,” Notori replied calmly, unbothered by her tone. “And it’s not a trick. I don’t have time to play games, and neither do you. If we’re going to survive this—hell, if we’re going to get Ofo out—you and I need a way to stay in contact.”
She didn’t reach for it, not right away. Her gaze lingered on the device like it might bite her. “This doesn’t mean I trust you,” she said finally.
“I don’t trust you either,” he replied. “That’s not what this is about.”
A beat passed. Then, slowly, she took the earpiece and tucked it into her coat pocket without another word.
They stood in silence for a moment longer—no alliance declared, no agreement spoken aloud. Just a thin thread of necessity holding them together…
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