Chapter 195: Eyes in the Crowd

Lilith – Border Tavern

The tavern was a dim, cramped thing, wedged between a crumbling warehouse and what might once have been a tanner’s shop. The air smelled of cheap ale, cheaper tobacco, and the particular sourness of desperation. A few patrons hunched over their drinks, pointedly not looking at the woman in the corner.

Lilith sat at a scarred wooden table, her fingers wrapped around a chipped cup of something that was probably wine in the same way a puddle was probably the ocean. She hadn’t touched it. The liquid sat undisturbed, a dark mirror reflecting the faint light that struggled through grimy windows.

’Adam and Ignis…’ Her crimson eyes drifted to the door, watching the shadows shift as the sun crept toward the horizon. ’They’re taking far too long. I told them to hurry back.’

She lifted the cup, let the rim brush her lips, then set it down again. Untouched.

’I suppose I’ll have to punish them when they return. Make sure they understand not to keep me waiting.’

The thought of punishment—of Adam’s exasperated sigh, Ignis’s indignant sputtering—almost made her smile.

A shadow fell across her table.

“Hey there, pretty lady. You here all alone?”

Lilith didn’t look up. Her fingers traced the rim of her cup, patient and unhurried.

The man was bald, with a scar that pulled one corner of his mouth into a permanent sneer. His companion, hovering just behind, had the eager, hungry look of someone who had learned that cruelty was easier than kindness. His hand was already reaching for Lilith’s shoulder.

“This place ain’t safe for a woman by herself, y’know.” The bald one’s voice was oil over gravel. “We could keep you company. Make sure nothing… happens to you.”

The fingers brushed Lilith’s shoulder.

She moved.

She simply turned her head, and her crimson eyes met the man’s, and her lips curved into a smile that never reached her gaze.

“How bold,” she murmured. “Touching me with such filthy hands.”

The man opened his mouth to respond—

And screamed.

“Aaaahhgggh!!”

His hand—the one that had touched her—fell to the floor in a spray of crimson. The cut was clean, surgical, the work of threads so fine they were nearly invisible. Blood pulsed from the wound, hot and fast, painting the floorboards in spreading patterns.

Lilith tilted her head, watching the blood pool. Her voice was soft, almost dreamy.

“Disgusting.”

The bald man stumbled backward, clutching the stump of his wrist, his face drained of all color. “You—you bitch! What the hell did you do?!”

Lilith’s gaze drifted to him. That same placid smile. That same terrible patience.

“I am not in the mood for games.” She rose from her chair, and the movement was fluid, predatory, the unfolding of something that had only been pretending to be human. “If you wish to attack me, then attack. I will give you a beautiful death.”

The man’s companion was still screaming, still scrabbling at the floor for his severed hand. The other patrons had vanished, slipping out doors and windows the moment blood touched wood.

The bald man’s face twisted. Fear curdled into rage, and rage was easier, safer, more familiar.

“Don’t underestimate me, you crazy whore!”

He lunged.

Lilith didn’t move.

The man’s knife stopped three inches from her throat. It hung there, suspended by threads that caught the light like morning dew. The man’s eyes went wide. He tried to pull back, to retreat, to run.

His arm separated from his shoulder.

Then the other arm.

Then his legs, in quick, efficient order.

He didn’t scream. There was no time. His body simply… came apart, a puzzle solved in reverse, and by the time his head hit the floor, his eyes were still blinking, still trying to understand what had happened.

Lilith stepped over the remains. Her shoes, immaculate, left no prints in the spreading blood.

The other man was crawling toward the door, leaving a trail of red behind him. His severed hand lay forgotten in the corner. His breath came in wet, desperate gasps.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Her voice was soft, almost gentle. The man froze. His eyes, wide and wild, darted toward her as she began to walk—slowly, deliberately, each step a measured beat against the blood-slicked floorboards.

“No—please—” His voice cracked, shattered. “Please, I won’t—I didn’t mean—”

Lilith’s head tilted, that same placid smile curving her lips. “Didn’t mean what? To touch me?” Her fingers twitched, and threads shimmered in the dim light, coiling around the man’s ankle. “To threaten me?” Another thread, around his wrist. “To think that a creature like you could ever lay hands on something beyond your reach?”

She pulled. Not hard—just enough to drag him back across the floor, his nails scraping uselessly against the wood, his screams rising to a frantic, animal pitch.

“Mercy! Mercy, please! I’ll never—I won’t—just let me go!”

Lilith stopped. She stood over him, looking down at the terror twisting his features, at the tears cutting tracks through the grime on his face. Her smile widened.

“Mercy?” She savored the word. “You beg for mercy, when you would have shown me none?” She knelt, her face inches from his. Her breath was cool against his cheek. “But you’re right. I should grant you something.”

The man’s chest heaved. Hope flickered in his eyes, desperate and foolish.

“I will give you a beautiful death.”

His scream never left his throat.

The threads tightened, and his body simply… unfolded. Arms from shoulders. Legs from hips. Ribs from spine, each one separated with the same delicate precision as the first. By the time the pieces settled, his face was still frozen in that moment of dawning horror, his eyes still wide, his lips still parted around a sound that would never be born.

Lilith rose. She surveyed her work with the satisfaction of an artist regarding a finished canvas. Then she turned, slowly, toward the bar.

The tavern owner was pressed against the far wall, his face the color of old cheese, his hands shaking so badly the bottle he’d been clutching slipped from his fingers and shattered at his feet.

“Oh.” Lilith’s voice was almost apologetic. “I’ve made a mess, haven’t I?”

She reached into the pouch at her belt—the one that had belonged to the first man, the one who had thought himself a predator—and withdrew a heavy purse. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed it onto the bar. It landed with a solid thunk, spilling coins across the stained wood.

“Keep the change.”

She walked toward the door, stepping over the remains without a backward glance.

The door swung shut behind her, the latch clicking with finality. Lilith stood in the narrow alley, the fading sunlight casting long shadows across her pale features. She touched her lips absently, tasting the phantom warmth of the wine she hadn’t drunk.

“Entertaining,” she murmured, almost to herself. “But still not enough.”

She tilted her head, listening to the distant hum of the town settling into evening. The screams from the tavern had already faded into rumor, swallowed by the greater anxieties of people who had learned to mind their own business.

“I could hunt,” she mused, her fingers tracing the edge of her sleeve. “There must be more of them.”

She smiled at the thought—the slow, patient smile of a predator considering its options.

A commotion at the end of the alley drew her attention. Horses, many of them, their hooves striking cobblestones in disciplined rhythm. Voices raised in welcome, in excitement, in the particular relief of people who had been holding their breath for news.

Lilith drifted toward the main street, her steps soundless, her presence unnoticed by the crowd that was already gathering.

The soldiers wore the crest of Solaria—the crowned sun, stitched in gold thread on their chests. They rode tall in their saddles, their armor dented, their faces weary, but their bearing still proud. Behind them, a cart rumbled over the uneven stones, its wheels groaning under the weight of something concealed beneath oiled canvas.

The townsfolk pressed forward, hands reaching, voices rising. “The army! The army’s returned!” “Did we win? Is it over?”

Lilith’s eyes swept over the procession, cataloging, assessing. Her gaze caught on a figure near the center—a woman who rode not with the soldiers but apart from them, her bearing too still, her focus too sharp. Her uniform was different from the others, cut from finer cloth, adorned with silver thread that caught the fading light. A commander, perhaps. Or something more.

’Interesting,’ Lilith thought. ’She burns brighter than the rest.’

Then her attention shifted to the cart.

The canvas had shifted during the journey, slipping just enough to reveal a glimpse of what lay beneath. Iron bars. A cage, fitted into the cart’s bed like cargo. And within that cage, pressed against the bars as if even that cold metal was better than whatever lay behind her—

A figure. Small, folded in on itself, its skin pale as bone beneath the grime and poorly healed burns. Matted hair, long and tangled, hung in curtains around a face that was half-hidden in shadow. But the eyes—when they caught the light for just an instant—were a pale, washed-out blue, and there was something in them that made Lilith’s fingers twitch.

’Oh,’ she thought, and there was something almost like hunger in the smile that followed. ’Now this is interesting.’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep