Chapter 28

A whimper slipped out. A blade tilted her chin like a winter icicle; the pressure burned.

Lilith, the Little White Dragon, had no strength to fight.

She could only kneel in that shaming pose, head tipped by the Divine Fragment before her.

The newcomer looked like Litt grown several sizes, a sapling widened into a pale willow.

Grown up, she mirrored Lilith even more than Litt did.

Delicate face, hair white as fresh snow; she seemed cast from the same mold as the Little White Dragon.

Only her eyes broke the mirror.

Not Lilith’s and Star Canvas’s sea-blue, but one crimson eye like a drop of death, and one blue as the Moonswallow Mist.

At this distance, Lilith saw blue fire seeping from that ghost-blue pupil like foxfire.

“Good evening.” The Fragment spoke first; the words fell like beads into a still pond.

Lilith froze, then came back to herself, heart drumming.

The voice echoed her own; if she hadn’t seen those lips move, she’d have thought she was speaking.

“Good evening,” Lilith answered, chin lifted by steel, breath thin as mist.

“I didn’t expect to meet you here,” the Divine Fragment chuckled, staring down like a hawk on a ridge.

Her gaze lingered on Lilith’s posture; curiosity stirred like a cat’s paw.

She tapped Lilith’s cheek with a fingertip. “I figured you wouldn’t return and would let me stir the Grand Mausoleum into a cauldron.”

“What?” A big question mark rose in Lilith’s mind like a kite.

She blinked at the Reaper Fragment. “Did we know each other? Why would I stop you—well, I did plan to—eek!”

The blade twitched. Ice kissed her neck; a needle of cold ran down her spine.

Delicate skin split under the edge; fear clenched her throat.

Lilith went still, trembling, eyes pinned to the Reaper Fragment’s face.

Interest drained from the Fragment’s features like color from dusk.

She slid the blade from Lilith’s throat, boredom flattening her tone.

“Huh. Wrong person. I thought you were that one. Didn’t expect you’d already killed it.”

“You mean... the Demon King?” Freed of the blade, Lilith clutched her neck, breath ragged like torn silk.

She didn’t want that near-death chill ever again.

The name tugged up the memory of that ugly, nauseating meat-mass she’d slain.

“Ah, you remembered.” The Reaper Fragment nodded, genuinely surprised, like thunder under a clear sky.

“I thought anyone who saw that obscene fat lump would never mention it again, except me.”

“Were you close with the Demon King?” Lilith asked, voice small, heart fluttering like a trapped sparrow.

“Not exactly,” the Reaper Fragment said, airy as wind over reeds.

“We’d agreed to split the continent. Leave a bit for my useless little sister and my arrogant big sister.”

“I planned to lie low and snuff out a pesky civilization on my side.”

“But that impatient oaf made too big a splash. The old fossils in the God Realm stirred.”

“They sent a crowd down to tidy us up.”

“Like the one in your arms.” She paused mid-sentence, then pointed at the fox cradled to Lilith’s chest.

The white-fox girl tensed like a bowstring; Lilith rubbed her back, soothing her so she wouldn’t pull at the wound.

“Those who came to hunt me ended up as ash,” the Reaper Fragment said, smiling like a knife’s glint.

“That one wasn’t so lucky. Looks like you took it out.”

“I figured as much. Impatience gets a guy like that killed by a little thing like you.”

“Alright.” She clapped, snapping the past like a fan shut.

“Return the little fox to me, will you? She’s my darling pet.”

“Without her, I get lonely.”

“Pet...” Lilith lowered her gaze to the white-fox girl.

The fox met her eyes, snow-white lashes trembling, and nodded.

“It’s fine. Just don’t forget what I told you.” The fox blinked hard, a slow, pained wink.

Lilith knew her glance pointed at the pocket holding that scrap of paper.

Lilith nodded.

She hated sending the fox back under the Moonswallow Mist, but she couldn’t match this elusive Reaper Fragment as she was.

She wouldn’t hand the fox over bare, either.

She slipped a clinging patch of Taint onto the fox, a leech to drink the Moonswallow Mist.

It raised the risk of infection, a dice roll with shadows.

But it beat being leashed again to the Reaper Fragment like a dog.

“I’ll help you over.” The fox could barely walk; compassion steadied Lilith’s hands like warm tea.

Her own leg hadn’t healed; she propped them both with tendrils of Taint like hidden crutches.

She masked the smell with those writhing filaments and tucked in a little more Tainted flesh.

“Hurry up. I don’t like waiting,” the Reaper Fragment said, smiling like frost under sunlight.

Urged on, Lilith quickened the sweep of her tendrils.

In a few heartbeats, they reached the Reaper Fragment.

“Good girl. Finally willing to come back to mommy?” The Reaper Fragment petted the fox’s head, strokes sugar-sweet and wrong.

The fox’s clear gaze fogged; blankness fell like night.

Blue fire burned again in her eyes.

Lilith nudged the Taint she’d hidden on the fox, like embers coaxed with breath.

It began drinking the Mist inside her, slow as winter thaw.

Give it time, and the fox would wake.

“Oh, right.” The Reaper Fragment turned as if remembering a lantern left lit.

“I don’t like that meatball either, but we counted as friends.”

“Since you came here gunning for it, I’ll strike first.”

“Eh?” Alarm flared before thought; panic bloomed like cold flowers in her chest.

Lilith tried to bolt, but cold mist had braided around her ankles like shackles.

She couldn’t move.

“Goodbye.” The Reaper Fragment waved, cheerful as a bell, and brought the blade down from on high.

Blood sprayed bright as poppies.

Lilith’s blue eyes flew wide; the plunging blade swelled in her gaze like a falling star.

Bang! Holy light flared white as fresh snow and caught the blow.

The mist at Lilith’s feet loosened; she staggered back.

But her chest wound and the half-healed right leg dragged like lead.

She hadn’t taken two steps when a force like a hammer hit.

It pitched her back to the same spot.

“Eh?” The descending edge filled her world.

Her mind went blank, leaving only a dumb, dazed sound.

A black silhouette flickered in front of her like a thundercloud.

It caught the strike for her.

“Sorry. I hit trouble looking for Abaddon and Litt, and only found you now.”

Nidhogg blocked the Reaper Fragment, her right hand a dragon’s talon, black as night.

She swept her arm; sharp claws scored a stark white scar across the blade.

The Reaper Fragment clicked her tongue, a spark of annoyance.

“Didn’t expect you so fast. How annoying.”

“Little doggy, we’re leaving.” She didn’t linger to tangle with Nidhogg.

She called to the white-fox, then vanished like mist at dawn.

“I’m late. I’ll heal you now...” Nidhogg didn’t give chase.

She turned to Lilith, who bled hard, hands clumsy with worry.

She reached out to heal, and met Lilith’s teary face like rain beading on glass.

Lilith used Taint to plug the wound, stanching the flow like a thumb on a spring.

She threw herself into the Black Dragon’s arms.

Nestled against that dark chest, she tilted her head up, eyes glossy, soft as dew.

“Why did you only get here now?”