The photograph was burning in Lily's mind. Her mother. Young, smiling, sitting among a group of people with faces obscured by shadows. The file in her hands trembled as she absorbed the implications of what she had uncovered.
The Keepers of the Shadows. That's what the file called them. A cult. But not just any cult—a secret society that had, for decades, operated in the depths of the city, pulling the strings behind disappearances, rituals, and even the darkest parts of the city's history. And Lily's mother had been involved. She had been a part of it.
Her fingers trailed along the edges of the photograph once more, her breath catching in her throat. She had always known something about her mother's disappearance hadn't made sense. Her mother wasn't the kind of woman who would just disappear, not without a trace, not without a reason. But this… this was something else entirely.
Lily shoved the file into her bag and stood up quickly. Her mind is racing, the pieces all clicking into place but along with it, a lot of fear and confusion. There was only one place she knew she had to go back: the warehouse, the room where she had seen her mother, or at least the distorted version of the woman. There was something there, something that might help her understand why her mother had become involved and what she now found herself caught up in.