The palace was large enough for me to be able to camp in one room without being caught. Since I no longer had any of my powers it wasn't like I could just snap in and out of here anymore. I needed to remain close, yet undetected.

I truly messed up with Queen. I should've been more cunning, a better liar. I don't know how they managed to figure out the entire plan, but it was pissing me off. I needed my powers to fix everything. Once I had them I could use them to erase Queen's memory of ever meeting me and I could start over.

That plan would work, but I needed to get rid of Syn SinClaire first. I knew if I just took her memories and took her with me he'd track me down to the center of the universe. He needed to be gone, eradicated like the disgusting scum he was.

Seeing as how everyone else had abandoned the plan after being found out, there was only one person who could help me. I just needed to speak to them as soon as possible.

I snuck out of the room and silently made my way to their room. I made sure to wait until four p.m. when the guards were switching shifts to make my break. I'd have only two minutes, so I needed to be quick.

I watched from the corner as a guard left his post and I smiled to myself. Good job, Lilith.

As soon as he left I made a run for it. I hated having to work with this person, but without my magic, I needed all the help I could get.

I let out a sigh of relief as I arrived at their door and knocked. They opened the door and scoffed at me. "What the hell do you want?"

"We can still kill Syn."

"Come in."

"Try this one on," Cleo said as she passed me the twentieth dress in the past hour. I pouted and she shot me a warning look.

"Queen your wedding is in like five days," she said sternly.

"I know," I said. "There's no way they can tailor a dress that will fit over my stomach in that amount of time."

"Just trust me, yeah?" Cleo insisted.

"Fine," I said.

I tried on a few more dresses, but none felt right. I stood in my bra and panties in the middle of the shop Cleo had rented out and I yawned. I woke up early to do this with her, but we'd been here for over five hours. I sighed as she disappeared into another row of dresses, and my eyes floated across the white clouds of dresses in the room.

My eye landed on a dress in the corner and I walked over to it. The bridal shop was filled with hundreds of dressed but this specific one kept catching my attention. It wasn't a traditional white dress. It was all black-maybe that's why it stood out like a sore thumb. Cleo came to my side with a stack of wedding dresses in her arms and she glanced at where I was looking. When she saw the dress I was looking at, she dropped all the ones in her hands.

"That's the one," she whispered.

I looked at her and frowned. "What?"

"You've been just looking in this direction and I didn't know why. And this is a...it's a beautiful dress."

"You think so?"

"Yes!" She clapped her hands together and passed me the dress.

I went towards the mirror and slipped it on. It looked amazing, but my back was completely exposed and there was no way that I would be able to zip it up. When Cleo noticed my hesitation, she walked up to me and began chanting a spell I hadn't learned yet. I watched through the mirror as blue smoke appeared from behind me. I felt Cleo's hand at the zipper and to my surprise, she pulled it up smoothly without any difficulty.

"Oh my gosh," I whispered. "It's-" Our heads snapped in the direction of the entrance when we heard the dinging of the bell on top of the front door. When we turned, there was nobody there and I frowned. "The wind?" I asked Cleo.

"Uhh hell no, we're not doing that movie bullshit," she said as she slowly walked towards the door. She looked at the door and then around the room. "Convertat eum," she whispered. That chant was one I knew, but it was usually to turn sound up and I couldn't figure out why that was necessary right now.

I looked at her. "Wha-" She put a finger to her lips, shushing me and I frowned. Suddenly the room filled with the sound of someone breathing, and a shiver ran down my spine. I was reminded of the phone calls from earlier of the breathing sounds and took note of how oddly similar they sounded. Realizing that it was probably the same person, I snapped my fingers, seeing us back to Syn's bedroom. Cleo fell to the floor and I winced for her.

"I'm sorry, I'm learning how to do that still." She got up on shaky feet but didn't pay attention to my words. Her eyes moved to the table and I turned to see Syn, Cain, Xavier, and Caspian all sitting together. They seemed to be smoking and playing poker and now all their eyes were on me.

"Fuck," Cleo groaned.

Syn blew out a cloud of smoke as he smiled and let his eyes trail down my body. I didn't realize I was wearing the dress until I looked down. "Shit."

"This is bad luck," Cain warned as he shuffled through his cards.

"You look good," Caspian spoke up. "Your hair looks like shit though."

"You just have to find something bad, don't you?" I asked.

"Of course, I can't have you walking around with your head bigger than it already is," he said smugly.

"I will murder you, you cotton candy-haired-" I moved to attack him, but Cain lifted me off the floor to stop me.

"Let's relax, sister."

"No, why'd you stop her?" Cleo whined. Caspian shot her a glare and she shrugged. Cleo more than anyone probably would've loved to see that. She loved Caspian and somehow hated him more than anyone at the same time.

Cain set me down and I crossed my arms as I frowned up at him. He pat the top of my head and gave me a frightened smile. "Easy there, buddy."

"Is the hyena growling at you?" Caspian asked from the table.

I ignored the urge to attack him once again and took a deep breath. "Watch your back, Cas."

He laughed and shook his head. "Love you too, Queen."

"What made you all decide to drop in?" Xavier said.

"There was someone in the room with us," Cleo said.

"Are you that boujee as to not share a bridal shop?" Cain teased.

"Who the hell are you?!" she exclaimed.

I laughed softly. "This is my brother Cain."

Her eyes widened at me then she looked back at him. "Like 'Cain and Abel' Cain?"

He shook his head and sighed. "That's me."

She looked at him in fascination and smiled. "You are...hot as hell."

"Cleo," Xavier warned.

She shot him an apologetic smile and Cain chuckled as he moved to her. "You must be their girlfriend," he said as he held his hand out. She nervously placed her hand into his and he kissed it. Oop. My eyes moved to where Xavier and Caspian were and Caspian seemed completely collected while Xavier looked as though he was about to explode.

"Cain, fuck off," Xavier said through gritted teeth.

Cain winked at Cleo and stood up tall as he held his hands up. "I'm just introducing myself."

"I'm going to change," I said as I walked to the closet. I pulled out a pair of Syn's sweats and a shirt and set it down as I slipped out of the dress.

The door to the closet opened and I looked over to see Syn walk in. "Hey," I said with a smile as I stepped out of the dress.

He walked over to me and cupped my cheeks as his lips moved to mine and I giggled. "Syn stop, everyone can hear."

"Yes, we can!" Xavier yelled.

I laughed and Syn rolled his eyes. He picked up the dress from the floor and hung it in the closet as I quickly got dressed. We walked back into the room together and I heard Cleo explaining what happened in the shop.

"...they were invisible. But we heard them breathing. It was so creepy."

Syn furrowed his brows and turned to me. "What is she talking about?"

"Earlier at the shop. Someone came in and we couldn't see them but we heard them breathing."

"Like the phone call?" He asked with concern lacing his voice.

"Yeah, actually. It sounded like it."

Syn ran his hand through his hair and took a seat at the table with everyone. "So another stalker?"

"I don't know." I shrugged.

"I'll deal with it," he said. I nodded and turned on the TV as I sat on the bed. I played games on my phone absentmindedly until I heard a familiar name on the television. I looked up and gasped as I saw a picture of Sebastian on the news station. Grabbing the remote, I turned up the volume and listened avidly.

"Sebastian Kingston, the 22-year-old head of The Garden Magazine has officially been missing for one week," the news anchor said.

"Isn't that Anna and Cole's son?" Caspian asked.

"Yeah, it is," Cleo confirmed as she looked at the screen.

Everyone seemed busy looking at the screen, but my eyes drifted to one person in the room. My heart rate quickened as I looked at him and he drank his liquor, ignoring the commotion in the room.

As if feeling my eyes on him, he looked at me.

What did you do, Syn?