Chapter 4

Edgar turned toward the voice and spotted a small, hunched figure nestled in an oversized high-backed armchair.

An elderly woman sat there, silver hair loosely pinned back with a chipped bone hairpin, her face carved with deep, weathered wrinkles, each crease bearing the weight of countless hidden secrets across long centuries.

She cradled a chipped porcelain cup etched with a faint blue willow motif in her palms, her eyes half-lidded, slow and unrushed like a feral old cat napping in the shade.

This was Madam Grey.

Edgar froze in the doorway, awkward and lost for words. An otherworldly, unaccountable force…