"You didn't have to knock," Jihoon said as he opened the front door. Then he froze. Instead of Shane, another girl stood in front of him, her hands folded, her head bowed.
"Who are you?"
"Jessica Kensington, child of Time and Death, sister to Oshane Kensington."
"What are you doing here?" Jihoon didn't mean to make his voice so flat; it just came out that way.
"I need—" She broke off, tried again, and failed. And her choked attempts softened Jihoon.
"Can I come in?" she whispered.
He hesitated. Despite her small stature and hunched shoulders, he knew how dangerous this girl was. But she looked at him with such hope it melted the rest of the ice round his heart. He opened the door wider to let her in.
Jessica settled onto the sinking cushions of his grandmother's couch. It somehow made her look smaller.
"Are you here to see Shane?" he finally asked.
Jessica shook her head.
"Are you here because you need help?"
She shook her head again.
"Listen, I can't do anything unless you speak."
"Shane should leave!" Jessica blurted out, finally lifting her head to look at him.
He wondered whether he'd made a mistake letting her in. "Why?"
"It's not safe here."
"Why?" The question cracked out with suspicion. "Because you'll hurt her again?" Another head shake. "My father. He won't stop until she gets what he wants. And I know he wants to hurt Oshane."
"And he sent you here to do his dirty work?"
"Before, I was doing what I'd thought was right. I was raised to believe that Oshane was a monster. " Jessica held out her hands, like she was trying to offer these words to him as penance.
"And now you've magically changed your mind?" Jihoon asked, his words harsher than he intended.
Jessica shrugged and Jihoon sighed. "So what is it that you want now?"
"This time I want to warn him before it's too late."
"So tell him yourself." Jihoon's eyes shifted to the door, wondering how things were going downstairs between Miyoung and Detective Roger.
"I already tried. Shane won't listen to me." Jessica's voice cracked with desperation. "But he'll listen to you if you tell him to leave."
Jihoon hesitated. He didn't want to believe Jessica. But he'd learned that it was unwise not to heed such warnings. The last time he didn't listen was when Shane told him to run and his family had paid the price.
"What if he doesn't leave?" Jihoon asked.
"Then he'll die."
Jihoon stiffened. "There isn't a way to stop your father?"
"My father is literally death. he's too powerful. I couldn't stop him even if I tried," Jessica said. "Plus, he's keeping things from me now. I think he's found someone else to help her. I heard her the other night on the phone. He has something she's been looking for. He said this is how it should have always been, that the punishment will be ten times worse now. Shane needs to leave."
"That's not going to happen."
Jihoon spun around as Shane entered the apartment.
"If your father won't give up his grudge, then maybe I'll need to get rid of the threat." Shane's voice could freeze a fire.
"Please," Jessica stuttered, "I've come to you in good faith. He's our father. Please don't hurt him."
After a second of frozen indecision, Shane replied, " He's 'your' father. He has never been mine. But don't worry. I won't kill him.. I don't do that anymore."
"Thank you," Jesssica breathed out.
"So you came to warn me and you did. Are we done?" Shane's face was set in a blank mask. But Jihoon saw the turmoil he hid. Like A storm brewing behind Shane's steady irises.
Jessica hesitated, her eyes darting between Jihoon and Shane.
"Is there more?" Jihoon asked gently, because he felt like he was standing next to two pressure points that were ready to burst.
"The soul. Yours and Shane's," Nara said. "It's the center of this all. Dad still wants it. He's hell bent on getting his revenge"
"Does this mean she's coming after me?" Jihoon asked.
"I think I can do it," Jessica said instead of answering him. "I can transfer the soul."
"You said you didn't have enough power," Shane replied.
Jihoon didn't need to see Shane's face to know he was worried. He felt it like electricity traveling through the air. Or maybe it was the connection from the soul inside him.
"Not alone." Jessica bit her lip. "But I realized this full moon means something."
"No, it doesn't. It's not the winter solstice or the summer. It's not even a harvest moon."
"But it is the last full moon before your hundred days. The third since you stopped taking souls. Those numbers have significance," Jessica explained . "It's important to you. And that might be more powerful."
"So you're saying you can take out the part of my soul, and Jihoon will be fine?" Jessica's silence answered for him.
"No," Shane said, hard and final.
"I can't say for sure it'll work. But I can say it's your best option, the only one where you can have a hope you'll both survive."
"If I make it to the hundred days without taking a soul, then maybe my soul will be weak enough to come out on its own."
"And if you die while your soul is still in him? How can you know Jihoon won't die, too?"
"She's right," Jihoon said. "The part of your soul in me is making me sick. The migraines, the seizures. The way I see it, things can't stay the way they are now. If we do nothing, the odds are pretty high one or both of us aren't going to make it. I'd rather do something and fail than give up."
Shane gave in. "What do we need to do?"
Jessica started to speak when Jihoon's phone rang.
He glanced at Shane, unsure if the moment could handle such a disruption.
"Answer it," came the reply. "I need some fresh air to think."
Jihoon picked up with an impatient, "Hello?"
He listened to the formal voice on the other line as his eyes followed Shane to the front door. It opened with a blast of cold air.
"What?" he asked sharply. Shane glanced at him curiously.
"I'm sorry," the person on the other line said. "I hate to tell you this kind of news over the phone. It's your grandmother."