Zara’s POV

  Three days had passed since Naja was killed and brought back to life. The doctors told me that her magic was working hard to heal herself, but she needed time. They remained hopeful that once her powers mended the damage, she would wake from her coma. Every day, I sat by her bedside, talking to her, willing her to return to me. And every day, Kage visited to update me on the investigation. He didn’t have to, but he did. He never stayed too long, never pushed for me to talk about my grief, but his presence had become a comfort. I wasn’t alone in this.

  Tonight, I stood in the dimly lit alley, my heart pounding as I surveyed the scene. The police had called me in due to the peculiar nature of the latest murder. I swallowed hard, steeling myself for what was to come. Kage stood beside me, his presence a silent pillar of support.

  The victim lay sprawled on the ground, their lifeless eyes staring into the void. Blood pooled beneath them, the dark stains glistening under the flickering streetlight. I stepped forward, the chill in the air biting at my skin.

  “There is so much blood,” I murmured, crouching beside the body. “The killer was angry. I count nearly twenty stab wounds.” I glanced up at Kage. “I will not be able to bring this man back, but I can try to summon him. Maybe he will be able to tell me something about the killer.”

  Kage’s dark eyes studied me, concern flickering across his face. “You sure you’re up for this?”

  I took a deep breath and nodded. “When I summon this spirit, I am going to feel the pain of his death.”

  Kage’s hand rested briefly on my shoulder, grounding me. “I’ll be right here.”

  I knelt beside the body, placing my hands gently on the cold skin. Closing my eyes, I focused my energy, feeling the familiar pull of death’s realm. My eyes began to glow even brighter as I summoned the victim’s spirit.

  The air around us grew colder, and I felt a rush of emotions—fear, pain, confusion. The victim’s spirit began to materialize, their eyes wide with terror. My breath hitched as I made contact.

  The spirit emerged slowly, a translucent form hovering above the body. Wisps of ethereal light swirled around it, giving it a ghostly, almost fragile appearance. The spirit’s face was a mask of anguish, eyes wide and unblinking, reflecting the last moments of their life. Their mouth opened and closed as if trying to scream, but no sound came out. The spirit’s hands were outstretched, fingers curling and uncurling in a desperate, futile attempt to grasp something solid.

  Their clothes, once vibrant, now appeared as faded, tattered remnants, floating around them like mist. The spirit’s skin was pale and almost translucent, with faint, dark veins visible beneath the surface. It was as if the life had been drained from them, leaving behind only an echo of their former self.

  “Who killed you?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

  The spirit’s eyes locked onto mine before a memory flashed into my mind, and I felt a jolt of recognition. Bright blue eyes, cold and merciless, stared back at me. I gasped, my mind flooding with memories of Naja’s vision. Those eyes… the killer’s eyes.

  Suddenly, a tidal wave of the victim’s pain washed over me. It was as if I were reliving their last moments—the sharp stab of a blade, the suffocating terror, the desperate fight for breath. My chest tightened, my breathing becoming erratic. My vision blurred, and I felt as though I were drowning in a sea of agony and fear.

  I clutched my head, trying to block out the overwhelming sensations, but it was no use. The pain was too intense, too consuming. My heart raced, each beat a thunderous echo in my ears. Panic clawed at my mind, and I felt the world closing in around me.

  “Zara!” Kage’s voice cut through the haze, a lifeline in the storm of emotions. His hands gripped my shoulders firmly, anchoring me to the present. “Focus. You’re here, in the present.”

  I forced my eyes open, blinking against the tears that had welled up. The victim’s spirit began to fade, the connection weakening. I had to concentrate, had to hold on just a little longer.

  “Do you know who he is? Where did he come from? Do you remember anything else?” I desperately tried to hold on to my connection to the spirit, but he was in too much pain. The spirit needed to leave this world.

  “Blue eyes… the killer has bright blue eyes,” I managed to say, my voice trembling.

  Kage’s expression hardened. “Are you sure?”

  I nodded, tears spilling over. “I saw them in Naja’s memory. It’s the same person.”

  Kage helped me to my feet, his grip steady. “We’ll find them, Zara. We’ll stop them.”

  I took a shaky breath, trying to calm my racing heart. The pain lingered, but I pushed through it, determined to see this through. Then I noticed the victim’s feet—they had webbed toes. I turned to Kage, “This man was a magical. What if the killer is targeting magicals?”

  Zara’s POV

  The steady beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound filling the quiet hospital room. I sat in the chair beside Naja’s bed, my fingers lightly wrapped around her hand. Her silver-glowing hands were dim now, the magic within her working tirelessly to mend the wounds that had nearly taken her life. The doctors told me she needed time, but patience had never been my strong suit.

  “Naja,” I whispered, brushing a stray curl from her forehead. “I need you to come back. I need you to tell me who did this to you.”

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  There was no response. There never was. But I kept talking to her anyway, as if my words could anchor her to this world, as if my voice alone could pull her back from the coma.

  The door creaked open behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder. Kage stood in the doorway, his dark eyes scanning the room before settling on me. He hesitated for a moment before stepping inside, his usual silent confidence tempered with something softer.

  “I didn’t know if I should come,” he admitted, stopping at the foot of the bed. “I never met her.”

  I offered a small, tired smile. “That doesn’t matter.”

  He nodded, his gaze shifting to Naja. “She must be incredible.”

  “She is.” I swallowed hard, fighting the lump in my throat. “She didn’t deserve this.”

  “No, she didn’t.” Kage’s voice was steady, but there was an edge of determination to it. “That’s why we’re going to find the person who did this.”

  I exhaled slowly, releasing Naja’s hand and straightening in my chair. “Do we have anything new?”

  Kage pulled up a chair beside me, lowering his voice. “Detective Hall tracked down the patient she wrote about in her journal. A man named Elias Varn. He was discharged from the hospital two days before the attack.”

  “Discharged?” My brows knitted together. “Was there anything unusual about his case?”

  “He came in with burns on his arms,” Kage explained. “No magical signature, no evidence of how he got them. Just burns.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” I murmured. “Naja wouldn’t have written about him if he were just another patient.”

  “Exactly.” Kage leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “We need to find out more about him. Where he went after he left the hospital, who he was in contact with.”

  I stood, running a hand through my hair. “Then let’s go.”

  Kage arched a brow. “Right now?”

  “Yes, right now.” My glowing green eyes locked onto his. “Someone tried to kill my best friend, and they’re still out there. I’m not going to sit around and wait for them to strike again.”

  He didn’t argue. Instead, he pushed himself up from the chair and gave me a small nod. “Then let’s go find some answers.”

  Kage’s POV

  We left the hospital in silence, the weight of our mission pressing down on both of us. Zara was tense, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. I had seen her angry before, but this was something different. This was personal.

  I kept close to her as we walked through the quiet hospital corridors, scanning our surroundings for anything out of place. My instincts were always sharp, and right now, they told me we were onto something big. We weren’t leaving the hospital yet—not until we got answers.

  “We should start at the hospital records office,” I said. “If Elias Varn was discharged, they might have notes about his condition, or where he planned to go next. While we’re there, we should also check records of any recently murdered magicals.”

  Zara nodded, her gaze sharp. “If there’s a pattern, we need to find it.”

  When we reached the records office, the night staff barely glanced at us. Zara moved with purpose, her determination evident in the way she carried herself. She didn’t wait for permission—she simply walked up to the nearest desk and demanded access to Varn’s file.

  “I need to see his discharge records,” she told the nurse at the desk, flashing her credentials from her work at the morgue. The nurse hesitated, glancing at me for confirmation.

  I stepped forward, flashing my badge. “It’s official police business.”

  The nurse swallowed hard and nodded, turning to pull up the files. A moment later, she handed us a printout. Zara scanned it quickly, her expression darkening.

  “He left an address,” she murmured, showing me the paper. “It’s not far.”

  Before we left, I turned back to the nurse. “Also, we need a list of any magicals who have been murdered in the past two months. Any unusual deaths, anything that stands out.”

  The nurse hesitated, but after another glance at my badge, she nodded and retrieved another file. As Zara flipped through the pages, her hands trembled slightly.

  “Kage,” she breathed, looking up at me. “There are four more magicals who have been killed in the last two months. Different methods, different locations, but all magical.” She swallowed hard, her fingers tightening around the pages. “That makes seven murdered magicals in just two months.”

  A slow chill crept down my spine. My mind immediately shifted to strategy, to patterns. This wasn’t just about Naja. This was a coordinated attack, a systematic targeting of magicals.

  Zara’s hands shook as she gripped the files tighter. “This isn’t random. Someone is hunting us.”

  I met her glowing green eyes, my own resolve hardening. “We just found our pattern. And we need to stop them before there’s an eighth.”

  We navigated the hospital hallways in silence, both of us lost in our thoughts. The address Elias Varn had given upon discharge was only a few blocks from the hospital. We found his small, cluttered apartment in a decaying building on the outskirts of the city.

  I knocked firmly on the door. “Elias Varn? We need to speak with you.”

  There was a long pause before the door creaked open. A thin man with hollow cheeks and wary eyes peered out at us. His arms, covered in healing burns, twitched slightly. He looked between me and Zara, his gaze lingering on her glowing green eyes and my black horns.

  “What do you want?” he asked, his voice rough.

  “We have questions about your visit to the hospital,” I said, keeping my voice calm but firm. “And about Naja.”

  Elias stiffened. “I don’t know anything about that.”

  Zara stepped forward, her expression hard. “Then why did she write about you in her journal?”

  His gaze flickered, and for a moment, I saw real fear in his eyes. I pushed the door open further and stepped inside. The place was a mess—papers stacked haphazardly, tattered curtains, the air thick with dust and something else. Something acrid.

  Zara’s eyes scanned the room, landing on a small collection of books stacked on a rickety table. She walked toward them, flipping through pages covered in anti-magical rhetoric.

  “This,” she said, holding up one of the books. “This is hate propaganda.”

  Elias’s face paled. “You don’t understand.”

  My jaw clenched as I took a step closer, my voice firm. “Then make us understand.”

  Elias swallowed hard, backing up slightly. “I—I joined the group because I thought… I thought magic was dangerous. I thought we were protecting people. But I swear, I didn’t hurt anyone.”

  Zara stepped closer. “Then who did?”

  Elias shook his head. “I don’t know. The group has connections, powerful ones. But I swear, I was just… just there.”

  Kage exchanged a glance with Zara. This wasn’t the killer, but he knew something. And they weren’t leaving until they found out what.

  I exchanged a glance with Zara. This wasn’t the killer, but he knew something.

  Elias licked his lips nervously before continuing. “The others… they talk about the killer like he’s some kind of hero. They don’t know who he is, but they admire him. They think he’s doing what needs to be done.”

  A chill ran down my spine. “So you’re saying this murderer isn’t connected to your group, but they support him?”

  Elias nodded. “Yes. They call him ‘The Cleansing’ Some think he’s one of us, others believe he’s working alone, but no one knows for sure.”

  Zara exhaled sharply, rage simmering just beneath her surface. “And you let this happen?”

  Elias swallowed hard. “I didn’t do anything. I just—”

  “You didn’t stop it either,” I interrupted, my voice cold. “And now seven magicals have been murdered..”

  Elias said nothing.

  I turned to Zara. “We have our next lead.”