She knelt beside her, patting Lana’s cheek with trembling fingers.
"Lana! Hey, Lana! What happened?"
However, Lana did not respond. Her breathing was faint, and her eyes remained shut. She was unconscious.
anwhile, Lana found herself surrounded by complete darkness. She looked around, trying to find any sense of direction, but there was nothing. Just endless black.
’Where am I? Mr. Crow? Naina? Anyone?’
Her voice echoed, yet no one answered. The silence pressed in, swallowing everything.
She walked forward without knowing where she was heading until her steps brought her to a tall mirror standing in the void. Confused, she approached it.
The mont she saw the reflection, her heartbeat stopped.
It was her. Yet it was not.
The reflection of Lana inside the mirror sat in a familiar wooden chair.
Her expression was twisted into an eerie, unsettling smile. That chair. That room. That exact posture.
She had seen it before. It was the scene from after Lucian died in her previous life.
Her chest tightened.
’No... not this. Not again.’
After Lucian had died, she had beco possessed by a ghost.
A ghost who had a morbid obsession with controlling her body and forcing her to harm herself repeatedly. It enjoyed hearing her pain.
There was a ti it forced her to drink several glasses of burning water just to hear her scream. Another ti, it forced her to rip out handfuls of her own hair.
The worst was when it made her slowly scrape away her own skin using blades, piece by piece.
The day she realized everything... that her revenge that she had taken on behalf of Lucian was nothing but an imagination... at that ti terror had swallowed her whole.
That had been her first true encounter with a ghost, and it was the most terrifying one of her life.
Even though she later pretended to be fearless, the truth was different. She always carried that fear deep within her. Hidden. Locked away. Never shown.
Because she learned one thing from that possession: showing fear only fed the ghost. Fear made them stronger.
Hector had later managed to exorcise the ghost from her body, but the scar it left behind never faded.
Now, facing the sa image again, Lana’s hands trembled.
She stepped back, but the reflection leaned forward instead. The reflection smiled wider and spoke in Spanish, its tone mocking.
"Shouldn’t you be afraid? They are coming for you. This ti, you will die by your own hands. You were saved last ti by a miracle, but there will be no miracle now."
Lana clenched her fists.
’This is not real. This is just a dream. It cannot harm . It cannot touch . It is only inside my mind.’
She repeated the words again and again.
As if resisting, the image in the mirror began to ripple and distort, like water disturbed by a stone. Yet her own voice echoed in her mind, cold and low.
"Ti is running out. They will find you. You will die as you did once before."
Lana shut her eyes tightly.
When she opened them again, she was no longer in the darkness.
She was lying in a room. A familiar one. The sa room she had glimpsed in her visions outside Naina’s mansion.
Sunlight filtered softly through sheer curtains. The scent of lavender lingered faintly.
Naina sat beside her, carefully wiping Lana’s sweater with a damp cloth. The mont she noticed Lana’s eyes open, her face lit up with relief and joy.
"Lana! You are awake!"
Lana let out a slow breath, her expression weak. She nodded.
Naina quickly spoke, her voice gentle yet firm.
"Everything is alright now. The doctor ca earlier. He said your body was severely weakened, but you will recover. You just need to rest for a month or so."
Lana frowned. "What happened to ?"
Naina hesitated before answering.
"Your internal energy was completely depleted. You must avoid any exorcism or spiritual battle for now. You were in very deep danger two days ago."
Lana’s eyes widened. "I was unconscious for two days?"
Naina nodded.
Mr. Crow, who was perched beside Lana, tapped her hand lightly with his wing. "Are you alright?"
Lana nodded again. Though the mory of the mirror still lingered in her chest like a cold weight, she kept her voice steady.
Mr. Crow exhaled sharply. "From now on, no more dangerous cases. I will strongly oppose it."
Lana opened her mouth to respond when a soft knock sounded from the door.
Both she and Naina turned toward it.
The door opened.
A handso man with deep blue eyes and black hair stepped inside. Lana’s breath caught in her throat.
Lucian.
Her heart trembled.
’Why is he here?’
She tried to speak, tried to ask him, but Lucian walked straight to her. He did not look at Naina. He did not speak any greeting.
He simply looked at Lana.
As their gazes t, Lana saw the blue in his eyes flicker into a faint shade of gold. She knew imdiately what he was doing.
A spirit summoner. He was checking her condition through his psychic spirit.
She did not resist.
He withdrew his energy after a mont, confirming that her injuries were healing. He let out a small breath, then spoke with a quiet chuckle.
"Ms. Lana, you really know how to make people worry."
Lana laughed; her voice ca out softer than it was intended, and she muttered, "Mr. Lucian, you worry too much. What can go wrong with ? With my ability, there is hardly anything..."
"Miss Lana." Lucian interrupted, his blue eyes staring at her with slight disappointnt. "Next ti, whatever task you are applying for, it needs to go through before you accept it."
’He is trying to control you! Decline his request!’ Mr. Crow shouted; however, he saw Lana looking slightly dazed.
’Lana? You are not going to agree to this...’ Mr. Crow paused because the next second he heard Lana say...
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