They split up. Each going a different direction. Each carrying the same weight.Maria went to the police archives. A basement full of old files, dusty boxes, cases no one looked at anymore. She pulled anything that mentioned weird deaths. Strange marks. Children dying for no reason. She found a few. But nothing that matched. Nothing that helped.Leo and Chloe went to the main library downtown. The big one with newspaper records on tiny rolls of film. They sat in front of machines that clicked and whirred, scrolling through years of old news. Page after page. Story after story. Their eyes hurt. Their backs ached. They found nothing.Bella and Iden went to the university library. The oldest one. The one with books you couldn't check out, only read in special rooms with white gloves. Iden spoke to a librarian in a quiet voice. Used words like "historical accounts" and "traveler journals." The librarian led them to a section in the basement. Shelves of books that smelled like rot and time

The knife went in. Sharp. Deep. Chloe felt it all. Every inch of cold metal pushing through her skin, through muscle, through things that should never be touched.She looked down at the blade sticking out of her chest. Blood soaked her shirt. Dark and wet. Spreading fast.Darwin's face was right there. Close. Watching. His eyes hungry for the pain. Waiting for her to break. To scream. To fall.Then something happened inside her. Something she didn't understand.She laughed.It wasn't her laugh. Not really. It came from somewhere deeper. Somewhere that had been sleeping a long, long time.Darwin's smile froze on his face. His eyes changed. The hunger went away. Something else took its place. Something that looked a lot like fear.Chloe lifted her head. Her eyes were gone. Just white. Bright white. Like someone had turned on lights behind them.The wound in her chest started to move. The skin around the knife pulled together. Tight. Pushing against the blade. Closing around it like it w

Back in Bella's apartment, she and Iden were having a time of their own.She lay on her back, the sheet pulled up just enough to cover nothing important. The soft light from a single lamp made her skin glow. Her hair spread out on the pillow like dark silk.Iden sat on the edge of the bed. He wasn't wearing much either. Just enough to be decent. In his hand, he held a strawberry. The red fruit looked almost wrong against his pale fingers.He brought it to his mouth. Bit into it slow. Juice ran down his chin. He didn't wipe it off. Just looked at her with those old eyes that somehow looked young right now.Bella watched him. A smile tugged at her lips."I thought you were ancient," she said. "Hundreds of years old. Seen everything. Done everything."He swallowed the strawberry. "I am.""So how come you're acting like this? Like a teenager with a crush?"He leaned closer. His voice dropped low. "Back in my time, I was very, very good."She raised an eyebrow. "Good at what?""Many things

The morning light crept through the hotel curtains. Soft and warm. Chloe stirred first. Blinked at the ceiling. Felt Leo's arm around her waist.She smiled. Turned slow to look at him. he was still asleep with his mouth slightly open and his hair a mess.She poked his nose. He scrunched it up but didn't wake. She poked again."Mmff," he said. Tried to roll away.She grabbed his face. Turned it toward her. "Wake up, handsome."He opened one eye. "It's too early.""It's not. The sun's up already.""The sun's always up somewhere." He closed the eye. "That doesn't mean anything. let me sleep, please."She laughed. Kissed his nose. "Get up. I'm hungry."He groaned. Pulled her close. Buried his face in her neck. "Alright. give me five more minutes.""You said that an hour ago.""Liar."She laughed again. Tried to push him away. He held tighter."You're stuck," he mumbled into her skin. "Prisoner of love.""That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.""Your love is dumb. That's why it's a pris

Deep underground. No light. No sound. Just rock and darkness and pain.Darwin lay on the cold stone floor, his body screaming at him from every angle. The spell Chloe had cast—the one that turned his own darkness back on him—had torn through him like fire through dry timber. He could still feel it burning inside. Eating at him. Twisting his insides into knots that would never fully come undone. Every breath was a war. Every heartbeat a reminder that he was still alive, still here, still breathing when by all rights he should be dead.He crawled to the wall. Dragged himself across the rough stone inch by agonizing inch. Leaned against it. Breathed hard. The air tasted like dust and age and something else. Something old.The book was there. The one he'd taken from the clearing. His prize. His purpose. He grabbed it with shaking hands. Opened it.Empty.Page after page. Nothing. Just blank parchment staring back at him like a joke. Like the universe itself was laughing.He screamed. The