Aiden stumbled back a step, as if hit by a wave of nausea. "W-What… is this?" he croaked, throat dry. "How…?"
Marjorie tilted her head, lips curling into a bitter smile. "How am I alive?" she echoed, voice cutting through the silence like a blade. "You thought you could kill me and walk away clean. But you forgot one thing, I don't die easy."
His eyes scanned the room in a frantic haze, as if the walls themselves might offer an explanation, some clue that would prove this wasn't real.
"Where… where's Merlina?" he asked, voice barely steady, the fear creeping in.
Marjorie's smile twisted into something cruel. "She was never the one texting you, you idiot. That was me." She stepped forward. "Merlina doesn't even know you landed, yet."
The lie rolled off her tongue effortlessly, deliberate, practiced. She needed him calm. Comfortable. Just long enough to lower his guard… and show his true colors.
