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Rifle raised high and adrenaline coursing through her veins, she must’ve seemed as crazed as the specter sprawled at her feet. Her lips parted, searching for an explanation for what she was doing, but it was too late—the child backed away before bolting deeper into the building.

Sighing, Lily slung her weapon over her shoulder. She glanced over the edge to Reina lining the men up against the wall with the threat of Xavier’s pistol. The specter remained still. No purple auras left his skin, but Lily’s soul tickled at her fingertips as if begging to let it make his current state permanent.

Lily killed the sensation by squeezing her gloved hands into fists while examining where the kid stood. Children were uncommon in the slums with souls being in such short supply, but this high up, it was possible there could be more.

One of her hands found her chest, rapping her fingers against her quieting pulse, and she remembered that feeling just before the specter had gotten to her. It reminded her of—

Her blood ran cold. She tore after the child.

Ducking under displaced walls and beams, she found them in a cluttered room, mid reach for a hole where the ceiling met the wall. They heard her enter, spinning around and pinning their back to the brick. The motion displaced their hood, revealing a thick head of hair the color of moist earth and the light brown features of a boy who looked up at her with utter malice.

But all Lily could focus on was his eyes reflecting the gold sheen of his soul.

The Guardian. God of life and soul, traditionally bonded to its opposite, the Wraith—god of death and decay.

The soul Lily was born with.

“Stay back!” he yelled.

The fascination faded when the grounded instincts of her body took over. She drew away as if realizing he was noxious.

It was like he manifested from the mural. A Hazevale—an imperial prince. It was another Flare she had felt. But of any of them, why did it have to be this one?

The Hazevale’s wanted her dead, and her soul destroyed. She was the lost reincarnation of the Evelians, the Wraith’s family line. Her predecessor, Keara, fought in the war that severed the bonds between two pairs of the Dusk and Dawn Flares.

Lily was the last reminder that death still loomed in the shadows of each and every life that extended past its limit in their empire.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Lily breathed, not knowing if she was speaking to him or herself. “Why are you here?”

The boy gritted his teeth, glancing around like a wild cat caught in a cage.

The Hazevale family occupied Failen, the capital of the Reatian Empire. For the entirety of their reign, they remained, entrusting its other major city, Reave, to one of their loyal followers. She imagined they visited to keep up appearances. If they had over the time Lily had been in the area, she never knew.

Maybe that’s all this was.

But there had never been an announcement of a new incarnation. Even down here, she would’ve heard about such substantial news. The last recorded birth of any Hazevale children happened long after the end of the Reapers’ War.

Brialis. Valen’s only daughter and third child.

A rock shifted, and she woke from the thought, finding the boy halfway up the wall.

She couldn’t just let him leave. Regardless of who he was, or where he came from, he wasn’t here alone. Everything she built in Reave was at risk—her obscurity, her friends, their livelihood—but she couldn’t bring herself to… to do what, exactly? Kill him? That’s what was expected of her, but if word got out the wicked Wraith took its revenge on the youngest member of the Hazevale line, whatever punishment she would endure would be torturous compared to any given for simply existing.

All she managed to do was stand there and watch him try to escape.

“Lily?” Reina appeared behind her. “What happened? I saw the specter and heard a screa—” She quieted upon seeing the kid, who ignored her like he ignored Lily. Reina’s tone softened. “Are you okay? Do you need help?”

“Leave him be, Rey.”

The boy stopped, sparing Lily a glance. Her aggravation burned hot as she realized she wasn’t going to do anything about him seeing her.

“Go,” Lily snapped. “Get out of here!”

He frowned, then pulled himself through the hole. A thud hit the ground, and his hurried footsteps faded away.

“Why’d you do that?” Reina asked. “He could get hurt down there.”

“He’ll be fine. I’m sure he’s got someone looking out for him.”