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You cannot stay here.

She flipped onto her back and stared through the dusky darkness at the ceiling.

Nothing good will come of it if you do.

It was only a matter of time until she was found. The reminder of her reality replaced all the warmth and hope in her veins with ice.

You must find Finnian.

Tactfully, she slipped from the bed and craned her head around the bookshelf to confirm if Ronin was asleep.

One arm dangled off the side of the couch, and the other was strung over his face.

She tip-toed around the shelf and beside the foot of the bed, never taking her eyes off the measured movements of Ronin’s chest as he slept.

Her shin rammed into the coffee table. She froze. The leg of the furniture screeched against the hardwood, and her heart lurched in her throat as the muscle in her thigh cramped.

With her pulse thumping wildly, she rotated her head towards Ronin.

Thankfully, he was still asleep.

She let out her breath and continued to the front door.

I will find him. She repeated the mantra to block out the self-doubt creeping over her. Finnian was in the city somewhere. They were closer to each other than they’d been in over a century.

You will not make it five minutes on your own.

Naia’s body locked up; her hand constricted around the door handle. A visual of herself lost in the deep, mage-infested alleyways of Hollow City turned over her confidence.

She was infinitesimal in comparison. Finding Finnian was not guaranteed if she went out alone, and with her luck, she’d wander into a situation far more than she could handle. The city was full of mages, and the thought alone of confronting one chilled her bones.

You are useless.

She gritted her teeth as a lump swelled in her throat.

You cannot do anything on your own.

One wrong move and she could end up back at square one. It was best to remain patient and go along with Ronin’s plan. Attending the charity event would guarantee her being in the same place as Finnian.

Naia lowered her hand and stood in front of the door, defeat settling through her.

She did not know how to be any better, how to rid herself of the blight growing within her. Its heaviness was too much to carry sometimes, and no matter how much she dreamed of one day being free of it, the image was impossible to see, and even harder to believe in.

Naia feigned sleep when something soft, and mildly heavy, plopped down on her head.

“Rise and shine.” Ronin’s voice was too groggy with sleep to sound chipper.

She stirred. The pile of what appeared to be clothes slid down into her lap as she sat up.

She squinted her eyes, as if the morning sunlight pouring through his windows burned her corneas. “I was having such a delightful dream. There were baguettes and butter, and you were not there.”

“I take it my bed kicked your insomnia then.” Ronin disappeared around the bookshelf dividing the room, the sound of his slippers scuffing towards the kitchen.

It took her a second to recall her lie about being an insomniac.

“I hardly got a lick of sleep, thanks to your talking device,” she retorted. He’d gotten up twice in the middle of the night to take phone calls out on the balcony. Luckily, this happened after her attempt to leave.

“Yeah, sorry,” he said through the loud clanking of countertop doors opening and closing. “There’s no rest for those who own a business.”