The corpse's body began to blacken, veins swelling with poison until it dissolved into shadow.
Renji's stomach lurched. This wasn't the girl he met on the subway—the shy, mysterious stranger who spoke to him under the moonlight. No, this version of her was something else entirely. Cold. Lethal.
She finally turned her head slightly, her eyes brushing past him. For an instant, Renji felt she saw him—truly saw him, but there was no recognition there. No flicker of familiarity.
To her, he was no one.
Renji's legs trembled. He wanted to run, but he couldn't move. He wanted to shout, but his voice was gone. All he could do was stand frozen as the girl he thought he was falling for stepped gracefully over the ashes of her victim and walked deeper into the ruins, her veil fluttering behind her like a banner of death.
Renji's chest ached.
This world had stolen her—and remade her into something terrifying.
But as fear clawed through him, another feeling rose, stronger than terror.
Desire.
Because even as he watched her kill, Renji knew one truth he couldn't escape:
he was still drawn to her.