“Nothing.”
Jisoo tilted his head slightly, sensing the lie. He always did.
“You’ve been distracted,” he said quietly. “For days.”
“Maybe I’m tired,” I answered.
“You don’t get tired.”
“Then maybe I’m broken.”
Taeyang snorted.
“That’s not new.”
I didn’t laugh. Because it wasn’t a joke. Something in me was changing—and not in the slow, aching way it had after I lost everything. This was different. Immediate. Violent. Like being pulled apart molecule by molecule and reshaped into something new.
Or worse… somethingold.
They didn’t know about the bond.
I hadn’t told them. Because if I said it out loud, it would make it real. And I wasn’t ready for real. Not after the last time. Jisoo stood and dusted off his hands. “We’ve done all we can here. No sign of Guild activity tonight. Maybe it’s quiet for once.”
“Maybe,” I echoed, but I didn’t believe it.
Taeyang pushed off the stone and looked at me, brow furrowed.
“You coming?”
“Later,” I said. “Just need air.”
Another lie. They exchanged a look but didn’t push. Jisoo clapped my shoulder once in that quiet way of his. Taeyang rolled his eyes and muttered something about "emo demons" before they disappeared into the trees.
And then I was alone.
Finally.
The second they were gone, I exhaled—long and low, like I’d been holding my breath for hours. I closed my eyes. And there it was.
That feeling again.
The mark beneath my skin flared—not in pain, but heat. Like the flicker of a match held just a moment too long. My fingers brushed my collarbone. The skin there pulsed. A tether I didn’t ask for tugged gently toward the south.
And then—
A sound.
A breath. A presence. My eyes snapped open. And through the thinning veil of moonlight and leaves, I saw her. A figure cloaked in black and steel, her blade glinting at her side. She didn’t look my way. Not yet. She didn’t know I was watching.
But I knew her. Even without seeing her face, Iknew. That was her. The one I was never supposed to find.
The hunter. fate, cruel as ever, had finally decided to set the match.
Seori
Marked for Death
Some demons beg for mercy. Others go down smiling.
