As the three of us stood amidst the remnants of the battle, the eerie silence of the graveyard pressed down on us. The green rift in the sky had faded, leaving an unnatural stillness in its wake. Anhur's tattoos glowed faintly, their light dimming as he caught his breath, but his expression had hardened into something unreadable as we explain everything that happen.
He turned to us, his golden eyes narrowing. "Jin's actions are too deliberate. He's no rogue warrior. He's a calculated tool, and Malik is holding the strings."
Miranda scoffed, "You're saying Jin's evil now? He helped that spirit move on and protected us. He wasn't exactly giving off malicious vibes."
Anhur's voice was cold and unyielding. "Helping a spirit move on means nothing when the same man tears a living woman's heart out without hesitation. Jin doesn't care about right or wrong. He cares about orders."
I frowned, crossing my arms. "You're not giving him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's more complicated than that."
Anhur's gaze burned into mine. "I've fought men like Jin before—ones who claim to follow orders for a greater good. Do you know what they leave in their wake? Death. Ruin. And excuses."
"Then why would he help at all?" Miranda argued, stepping forward. "Why guide the spirit? Why bring the woman back?"
"To gain your trust," Anhur shot back. "Jin isn't working alone. Malik's using him to manipulate you. Everything he does, every move he makes, is calculated to serve Malik's agenda."
I bristled. "That's a hell of an assumption for someone who doesn't even know what happen."
"I know enough," Anhur snapped. "I know tactics. He binds people through pain, through desperation. He offers them power and purpose, but at a cost. Jin's no exception."
Miranda frowned, her expression uncertain. "What kind of cost?"
Anhur's voice was heavy with contempt. "Their humanity. Malik doesn't just revive the dead. He remakes them. Strips them down to their core and rebuilds them as weapons. Jin might seem noble, but whatever he was before is gone. What's left is a shell—a tool Malik wields with precision."
I wanted to argue, to defend Jin, but the image of him ripping out that woman's heart replayed in my mind. His calm, detached expression as he fused the orbs, his quiet departure with Yuki… It wasn't easy to reconcile with the man who had gently helped the spirit moments before.
Anhur took a step closer, his voice low and firm. "Listen to me. Malik doesn't let anyone escape his grip. Not Jin. Not Yuki. And if you think for one second they're acting outside his control, you're fooling yourselves."
Miranda's jaw tightened, but she didn't respond. I hesitated, my thoughts swirling with doubt.
Anhur continued, his tone dark. "You think Jin's noble? Let me ask you this: How did he know about the spirit's family in Colorado? How did he know about the son at Stanford? That's not intuition. That's surveillance. That's Malik feeding him information to gain your sympathy."
the realization hitting me like a punch to the gut. Anhur was right. Jin's knowledge had been too specific, too precise. I'd chalked it up to his connection to the supernatural, but now it felt… calculated.
"What do we do?" Miranda asked, her voice subdued.
Anhur's tattoos flared brighter as he turned toward the direction Jin had disappeared. "We find him. We find out what Malik's planning, and we stop it. If Jin gets in our way…" His voice turned cold. "We put him down."
"Put him down?" I echoed, my voice rising. "You're talking about killing someone who might be a victim in all this!"
Anhur's eyes burned with conviction. "Jin made his choice when he allied with Malik. Whatever humanity he had left is gone. If he's a threat, we end him. No hesitation."
The words stung, but I couldn't deny the logic behind them. If Jin was working for Malik, if he was part of a larger plan to destabilize the Veil, we couldn't afford to let him roam free. Still, the thought of facing him—of fighting him—felt wrong.
Miranda broke the tense silence, her voice steady but grim. "Fine. But if we're going after Jin, we need a plan. He's not exactly easy to pin down."
Anhur nodded. "Agreed. He and Yuki will lead us to Malik. We'll use them to uncover his endgame. And if they're too far gone… we eliminate them."
I wanted to protest, to believe there was another way, but the weight of Anhur's words settled over me like a shroud. Jin's calm demeanor, his unwavering loyalty to Malik, his brutal actions—they all pointed to a man who had left his humanity behind.
"Let's move," Anhur said, his voice cutting through my thoughts. "The longer we wait, the closer Malik gets to tearing the Veil apart."
As we left the graveyard, the tension between us was palpable. Anhur's resolve was unshakable, Miranda's uncertainty was clear, and I couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for doubting Jin. But as the memory of his actions played over and over in my mind, questions haunted me