"The shadow twin."
Lila's head tilted slightly, her black eyes glinting like polished obsidian, the warmth from moments ago draining away as if a veil had lifted—or fallen.
The room felt colder, the sunlight through the window now sharp and unforgiving, casting long shadows across the bed where the forgotten book lay abandoned.
"How did you know?" she asked, her voice low—a quiet murmur stripped of the fragility that had once clung to Lila's words.
Now it was steady.
Probing.
Like a predator testing the air before the strike.
Kael didn't flinch.
He didn't step back. His stance was relaxed, but there was tension in the quiet set of his shoulders, in the way his arms hung—loose, but ready.
"I found the records," he said. "Old files buried beneath layers of forgeries, tucked deep in the ashes of what the fire didn't consume. There was a girl listed at Ashbrook Orphanage. Just one, with a name that stood out."
He paused.
"Lital."
