Shyla could feel the cold eyes burning from above, ignoring everything. she nodded at Mrs. Hales, forcing a small smile. "Thank you… for everything." She turned, feeling the weight of the locket pressing in her pocket.
From the corner of her eye, she caught the shadow again. He didn't move. Didn't speak. Just… stood there, watching. Every instinct in her screamed to run, but curiosity held her rooted.
Leo hissed softly in her mind. Dumbass. Don't even think about looking up. He's not here to play.
Shyla's pulse thudded. Her fingers brushed the locket. It warmed, almost thrummed. She felt him, the stranger, more than she saw him. The air between them felt thick, charged.
She shook her head and walked toward the exit, careful not to glance at the second floor. He didn't move. He just lingered like a shadow that refused to fade.
Even as she left the library, her heart wouldn't settle. Somewhere, somehow, he was still there, watching.
Shyla slowed her steps, gripping the strap of her bag tighter. Who was he? Why did he feel… familiar? Her mind raced, throwing questions at itself, bouncing off walls that offered no answers.
Leo's voice slithered into her thoughts, sharp and annoyed. Easy, girl. Easy. If you were that curious, why'd you leave the library with Mom and Nora? You should've gone up, checked the second floor. And now? Now you're regretting it.
Shyla groaned, clutching the locket in her pocket as if it could give her courage. Regretting… yeah, I am. But I can't… I can't just go back and stare at him. Who knows what he'll do?
Her steps picked up, trying to push the library and the shadowy figure out of her mind. But deep down, she knew curiosity wasn't going anywhere. Not tonight. Not with him lingering in her thoughts.
Her pulse still thrummed in rhythm with the locket. It was alive somehow, echoing the presence she couldn't name, couldn't confront, yet couldn't stop thinking about.
After the short trip, they finally reached home. Noon sun spilled through the windows.
"You both go freshen up. I'll make lunch," their mom said.
The girls disappeared to their rooms. Shyla shut the door behind her and sank onto her bed. Her mind was a tangle—Leo, the shadow in the library… everything. She didn't even notice the lunch smell drifting in.
She just sat there, lost in it all.
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SOMEWHERE IN SHADOW
"MASTER, we have rumors-tails, a girl, last name Park. Weak leads, but —" one of the men stammered, voice thin.
Ash's head snapped up. The room chilled. "Park?" He tasted the name like poison. "Park or Clark, it matters not. The blood is the blood. If Alexandar's line survives anywhere, I will find it."
Ash cut in, low and dangerous, "follow shadows, follow debts, follow ruins, follow the gossip. Use the old ways — the list of patrons from houses of mourning, the wetnurses, the midwives. There are always traces. Men forget paper, they do not forget faces when their bread is stolen, or a child is born wrong."
Silence. The men swapped looks: the task was massive, but the order was clear.
"You will find me blood," Ash said slowly, each word a blade. "Or you will give me corpses of yours. I do not have patience. Alishya's revival will not be delayed because you are soft."
A younger hand rose, trembling slightly, voice barely above a whisper. "Master… there's a whisper from the under-city." He swallowed, eyes wide. "Leo… seems to be active. And… for the last 20 years, Lord Nicolas has often visited that place."
Ash slammed his fist on the table. "Leo… active? Twenty years? Damn it!" His voice was sharp, slicing through the shadows in the room. "Find him. NOW. And bring me everything—every whisper, every trace of that wretched locket alexander carried."
The young hand shook as it scribbled notes. "Yes, Master… but—"
"No but!" Ash snapped, voice like breaking glass. He leaned forward, eyes hard. "You fail me, you die. You find me blood, you live a little longer. Understood?"
The men swallowed. One by one they nodded, hands trembling. "Good." Ash straightened.
A shadow at the back of the room, low voice: "Master, if Lord Nicolas—"
"If Lord Nicolas is there," Ash said, cutting the man off before he finished, "make sure he finds nothing we don't want him to find. If Nicolas comes close, we move faster. If he moves on her, we take what's left. Understood?"
The men stared. They knew the meaning: if Lord Nicolas touched that line, the war would shift. They nodded, faces pale but set.
Ash watched them leave, one by one melting into the dark hall. When the last door shut, he stood alone with the map and the chalice. He picked up the chalice, turned it in his hands like it weighed the future. "Alishya," he whispered, and for a second the monster in him sounded like a man who'd been waiting too long.