"You've lost enough." Those words surprised her almost as much as when she heard the paramedics pronounce Katy and her family dead at the scene.

  Gabbie froze, her bowed form trembling on the cold tile, tears blurring the smoke wisps curling from Riven's body. Behind the one-way glass, the detective watched, his breath fogging the pane, heart pounding in sync with the questions ricocheting through his skull.

  Riven stirred then, unfolding from the floor with unnatural fluidity, like smoke coalescing into form. He rose, gray hair falling in limp veils, and turned toward the door—casual, as if the interrogation, the assault, and the confession were all afterthoughts. His hand reached for the handle.

  "No—" Gabbie lunged, fingers clamping around his ankle like a vice, yanking him back. The detective jolted behind the glass, eyes widening in disbelief.

  "Why?" Gabbie's voice cracked through a storm of sobs and fury, her grip iron despite her shaking. "Why kill Katy? Why your family? They loved you!"

  Silence stretched, thick as the drifting haze. Riven paused, looking down at her—those pale, smoky eyes unreadable, fixed on her tear-streaked face.

  "Why would you kill them?" she pressed, voice rising, nails digging into his leg through the ethereal fog that was his skin. "Was it for this power? They loved you—despite everything you did, the bullying, the cruelty—they still loved you!"

  In a blink, the older detective teleported into the room in a sharp green flash, magic crackling in the air like ozone. He grabbed Gabbie's shoulder, hauling her back. "Shut up, Gabby! Riven, you can go—please, you're free to leave." His voice dripped apologies, bowing his head slightly to the royal.

  But Gabbie thrashed against him, eyes wild, grief overriding fear. "No! I don't care—I can't do anything to you, fine! But I need to know ! Why did you kill your family?"

  Riven turned slowly, his form shimmering at the edges. The room grew colder, smoke thickening. But before he could say a single word, the whole room temperature shot up dramatically.

  "You shouldn't let your personal feelings about the victims cloud your judgment," he told her simply, completely disregarding her question. It will be useful to you in a situation where you can actually do something," he told her coldly.

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  But to answer your question, "Why did I kill my family?"

  He said, causing the detective's and Gabbie's breath to hold almost simultaneously with each other.

  Then for the first time that night he smirked, but his eyes didn't follow in the glee; they remained dead like fish as he said,

  "Isn't it obvious I'm a failed royal

  These words shocked both of them to their very core because even the utterance of those words was considered taboo and could have you subject to harsh punishment or death if you called or said that in the presence of a royal.

  Because a failed royal means... A royal who's been possessed by a spirit of the Heavenly realm, Demon realm, or the Fae circle.

  But before in anyone could make a single move,

  BOOOOOOOM!!!!!

  The explosion rang out beside them in a blinding flash of light, completely eviscerating the wall and sending the detective and Gabbie tumbling to the ground. The detective sheltered her with his body, taking the brunt of the rumble that was sent flying at them.

  "How dare you, filthy dogs, touch a royal?!"

  Upon hearing the voice, a cold shiver of pure terror crawled down her spine as every instinct told her to run, but the detective with his heavy frame was on top of her, blood dripping from his head.

  "You damned Mongols don't know your place,"

  "I need to leave. I need to leave. I need to leave. I need to leave," her inner voice screamed at her as images of her seeing him beheading a commoner and his entire family in the middle of the street as kids played in her mind.

  But just as she was about to summon the strength to run, the weight of the detective pressed on her, hitting her with remembrance.

  "I can't leave him here," she muttered, that thought rippling throughout the other ones.

  she thought, but it felt empty.

  "And Julius," she croaked out as the sobs got heavier.

  She continued to sob as the footsteps got closer, and she could feel the heat burning the parts of her body that weren't being covered by her partner.

  "Please stop," she begged, knowing that if it was burning her, then it was cooking him.

  "Please stop!!" she shouted as she felt her partner's body start to heat up and watched helplessly as the skin and flesh of his arms started to burn away.

  "Please stop; it's my fault," she shouted, but her pleas fell on deaf ears.

  Then she heard it in almost a whisper, the detective's voice.

  "Run, run, Gabbie."

  This made her eyes widen before the tears fell harder. "I'm sorry, I can't," she said through choked sobs.

  "I can't feel my legs," she muttered while, unbeknownst to her, a large piece of rubble managed to pierce through the detective and into her back.

  But then, as she closed her eyes for the final time, she felt the heat disappear as if it was never there.

  Opening her eyes, she looked to see Riven a few feet in front of them with his hand raised, and all the smoke that was fogging up the room before now condensed in a haze around his grandfather's head.

  Now on his knees, the old man's eyes began bulging; he coughed violently and began scratching at his throat, leaving deep lacerations with his nails.

  But what shocked her the most was the words that left his mouth.

  "I said she lost enough."