Once Cixi reached home, she wasted no time.

The door had barely shut behind her when she dropped her purse onto the small table near the entrance, pulled out her phone, and dialled Officer Bill’s number. Her fingers still felt faintly unsteady. Whether that had been from anger, frustration, or the memory of Cassian’s mouth on hers, she did not wish to examine too closely.

The call rang only twice.

"Officer Bill," she breathed the moment he answered. "I am so sorry. I couldn’t talk properly earlier when you called. I am free now." The apology rushed out of her at once. She had cut him off so abruptly before, and though she had done it out of panic, guilt had followed her all the way home.

On the other end, Bill’s voice came warm and steady, carrying that simple concern that never seemed forced. "No worries. I called to let you know I found the right person who might be able to help us."

Cixi straightened a little.

Help!

"But," Bill continued, and her hope faltered faintly, "I am with my partner right now, and we are heading out of town. There is a case I need to handle, which is why I am travelling. I’ll be back in two days, and then we will meet and talk properly."

Cixi nodded instinctively before remembering that he could not see her.

When a beat of silence followed, Bill called her name. "Cixi?"

She blinked. "Yes?"

"You didn’t say anything, so I thought the line got disconnected."

For one fleeting second, her mind betrayed her and returned to Cassian. Their closeness. The way his eyes had rested on her lips as if he still felt the sting she had left on him. And to that mocking calm with which he had dismissed, tempted, and cornered her all within the same stretch of breath.

"I am just tired," she said at last.

"Then get some rest." Bill’s voice softened at once. There was a pause before he added, more quietly, "And be careful." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Something in the way he said it tugged at her heart. Cixi knew he genuinely cared for her. And that feeling of being cared for made Cixi smile a little. "I will," she said confidently. "And you stay safe too."

She then ended the call.

For a few seconds, Cixi remained where she was, her phone still in her hand, while the silence of her apartment spread around her. The place felt empty, a sensation she had never felt before. Not when Marion lived five blocks away from her.

Slowly, she placed her phone on the small table.

And then, without quite knowing why, her gaze shifted to the long mirror hanging on the wall.

It was the same mirror she used every day after taking a bath in the small living room that doubled as her kitchen.

Her feet carried her towards it almost on their own. She stopped in front of it and stared not at herself but through it, waiting with the strange anticipation of someone trying to prove her own mind wrong.

At first, she saw only her reflection.

Her faint, flushed face. Her loosened hair, a disarray which Cassian had created using his fingertips. And a flutter stirred in her stomach, and she placed her hand against it to calm it, only to make her aware how much she still felt his touch linger on her. Her lips were still swollen, which she refused now to examine too carefully.

She once more focused on the mirror. And saw nothing.

She stood there for a minute.

Then two.

And then five.

The mirror reflected only her own disappointment.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered under her breath. Still, she did not move.

Ten minutes have now passed.

Soon it became fifteen.

At last, with a little huff of irritation, Cixi began to step away.

Only to see out of the corner of her eyes, the mirror surface rippled like water and then stilled again.

Her eyes snapped back at once, and her steps paused. She waited with hope.

And there he was.

Cassian!

Cixi blinked once, then again, as though her mind might correct itself if she gave it enough chances.

Standing alone.... Ofcourse smoking!

"He and his cigarette," she muttered, clicking her tongue softly. "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk."

He remained there, framed by a background she did not recognise. Behind him stretched what looked like metal walls, silver under the dim light, and beyond that... white snow....?.... but it was a summer.... Cixi gave more thought, and after some contemplation, she reached another conclusion, perhaps white sand desert...? But then there was no place near Demond with white sand.

She gave up!

Was she truly seeing him? Was this real? Or had her mind, already stretched by the Grim Reaper, curses, deepfakes, and Cassian Crown, simply decided to split apart at last?

She leaned closer, yet she didn’t dare to touch the mirror. Last time she had done that, Cassian’s image had disappeared.

Cassian looked unaware for the moment, one hand in his pocket, the other holding the cigarette near his lips. Smoke curled lazily around him as he stood lost in thought, yet was too perfectly himself.

Without taking her eyes off the mirror, she began backing towards the table where she had left her phone.

Her steps were cautious, like someone afraid that one careless movement would break the spell. She reached blindly behind her, fingers brushing the wooden edge first, then the phone, and snatched it up at last.

All the while she kept watching him. As carefully as she had walked backwards before, she now moved faster towards the mirror, and once she was standing before it, she dialled his number.

In the mirror, Cassian’s hand moved towards his pocket, and Cixi’s heart gave a frantic beat.

He reached inside, took out his phone, and looked down at the screen.

Instead of responding or typing, he merely stared at the screen. Cixi couldn’t tell if it was a call or a message notification, but she could see that the phone’s screen was lit up. And he put the phone back in his pocket.

Cixi disconnected the call and dialled his number once more.

And at that exact moment, he repeated the action.

"H—holy shit," she whispered to herself. "I can... Really.... Can see Him."

He disconnected the call without another thought.

Cixi glanced at her own phone and then at him. She stubbornly called again.

In the mirror, a frown appeared between Cassian’s brows as he looked at the screen once more, then pressed something and disconnected her again before lifting the cigarette back to his mouth.

Her ego was bruised instantly. Cixi narrowed her eyes and called him again.

This time, Cassian glanced to his left and then to his right, as if checking for anyone who might be trying to bother him. After taking another slow, deep drag and holding the smoke inside, he finally responded.

Before he could say a single word, Cixi burst out, "Why do you keep disconnecting My calls?! And don’t even Think of telling me you were Busy or in a Meeting."

Cassian looked entirely unfazed. In the mirror, she watched his lips move calmly, and in her ear, his voice arrived a second later.

"I am busy!"

"Busy? With what? Smoking?!"

Cassain raised a brow at that and then replied. "I am in the middle of something. You forced me to answer."

"Fool someone else!"

"You are acting like a girlfriend I never had before." His words struck her in her throat. His next words landed even harder. "You are beginning to sound like those women who refuse to keep their distance from me. I hate those women."

Cixi’s pride, already wounded, took another blow.

She stood before the mirror, glaring at him, her grip tightening around the phone so sharply that her fingers began to ache. She said nothing, partly because she was furious and partly because she did not trust herself to speak without sounding exactly like the sort of woman he was mocking.

In the mirror, Cassian moved. He turned fully, and for one alarming second, it looked as though he were facing her through the glass itself.

His eyes locked onto hers.

Not generally....

Not vaguely.....

Directly.... locking his eyes into hers....

"Looks like you were, after all, telling the truth," he murmured. And her stomach dropped with a bad premonition. "You have really fallen for me." He shook his head, staring right into her eyes in mocking disappointment.

Cixi stumbled back a step. Her gaze flew from the mirror to the phone, then back again. Her breath came unevenly, and her pulse felt too loud.

With uncertainty, she lifted the phone closer to her ear. "C-can you see me?"

If he could... then had he seen her before? Her eyes widened in stupefaction. Had he seen her that night, when she had stood naked in front of the mirror and caught his reflection there, beholding her only to dismiss it as a hallucination or a curse or some twisted trick her own mind had conjured?