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Reina fiddled with an ornate ring, spinning it around her finger. “I don’t know…”

“He’s a Dawn child, Rey. He’s not worth the trouble. Forget him.” Lily turned to her friend and pushed Reina’s hair out of her face. “Are you okay? No hits to the head?”

Reina groaned at Lily’s examination, successfully diverting her attention. She gently pushed her away. “I’m fine. You don’t need to doctor me. Or Xavier. Promise.”

She smiled softly. At one point, Lily wanted to spend her time doctoring people. Every so often that forgotten dream slipped through her reality. “Got your guns back?”

“And then some. Guess what else they…”

Lily followed Reina back to the bottom floor, all while drowning in a sea of anxiety that hadn’t pestered her in nearly a decade. Of all the times the Hazevales chose to change up the status quo, did they have to now? They couldn’t wait another century?

“Lily?” Xavier’s voice brought her back from her worries. He raised a sandy brow, grassy eyes sharp, normally coiffed hair disheveled. “You still with us?”

Don’t break, Lils. Not in front of Xavier.

Lily cleared her throat. “You said they have, um, escence? How much?”

“Half a kilogram.”

Lily let out a whistle, kneeling close to the unconscious men. Their fine silk clothing was coated in dust and specks of blood. One was in black robes, a gold insignia of the sun on his chest. The specter’s handler. Very courageous of them to try to commit two robberies in the same night, but reckless. “Where’d they steal the powder from?”

“The lord Aarin works for,” Xavier told her, nervously glancing at Reina.

Lily groaned. “No more jokes, Xavier. I can’t take it anymore.”

“We’re in no need of it,” Reina piped up, “and if his network finds out we just left it here—”

“I’m not doing him any favors by bringing back his drugs,” Lily bit. “Not without a price.”

“He’ll pay for them,” Reina said. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“We’ll make sure of it.” Lily stood, then threw herself down on the closest piece of rubble that would hold her weight and slumped against the wall. “Does it have to be Aarin?”

Reina rolled her eyes, but Lily wasn’t going to budge. She knew Reina would end up forgiving that bastard for anything he did, and Lily was always stuck gluing the broken pieces of her heart back together each and every time he shattered it.

“He is our closest contact,” Xavier said with little enthusiasm.

Reina kicked away a foot from one of the thieves and dropped to Lily’s side. “Today’s one of his busy days, and I know where he spends his time. We can meet up with him tonight, get our reward, and be done with him for good.”

Lily turned her disdain on Reina who responded by mimicking Lily’s earlier mannerisms. “What if I buy the parts to upgrade your rifle with my cut?” she teased.

For a brief, wonderful moment, Lily forgot about the incarnation and everything his presence implied. What she wanted was to be there for Reina when Aarin inevitably hurt her, but she couldn’t, no matter how much she wanted to stay. Not knowing the Hazevale’s were so close. She would help this last time, but keeping the Wraith hidden and nothing more than a legend, like those the empire kept locked up under its very soil, was what she sought more than anything.

And Reina and Xavier wouldn’t be the first she abandoned to make it so.

Chapter Two

Through the cracked glass, Lily’s lavender soul danced behind her eyes with a grace she convinced herself was an illusion.

She’d never seen an image of the last known vessel for the Wraith, Keara Evelian. Records of Lily’s distant grandmother were hard to come by, but Lily was told what she’d looked like when she was killed. An older woman with long silver hair and ivory skin so pale it was like porcelain. Sharp, thin facial features accompanied narrow eyes, filled with the purple glimmer of the Wraith. She was rumored to have taken its power far beyond the limits of any vessel before her.

A picturesque description of an Ashin Imordial, if ever Lily had heard one.

If she squinted, maybe she would look worthy of the Evelian name. But Lily’s face wasn’t as devoid of color. Her father’s Alokyian blood bloomed more life into her skin and darkened her hair; though, it had been so long since Lily let it grow that she couldn’t remember how much darker it was compared to her mother’s.

Then there were their eyes. Surely they shared the same eyes.

Beyond her pupils, the Wraith swirled rapidly as if in agreement.