She staggered forward, struggling to balance the pile as she passed Natalie. Then, right on cue, she slipped and toppled beside her, sending coats and quilts flying across the floor. Natalie had been watching her the whole time and quickly stepped aside. But as she did, she felt something slip into her palm. She kept her expression neutral and rubbed her fingers over it. A folded note. She arched a brow slightly. Was this girl passing her a message? Selene pushed herself up, awkwardly, bowing several times to Natalie and Cassian. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to." Then she hurried to scoop up the scattered items and left without another word. Natalie watched her retreat, then tucked the note into her storage space and read it silently with her mind. The handwriting was uneven, but the message was clear. "The female leader practices cursebug magic. Heart-binding cursebug wins loyalty. Beauty cursebug drains vitality. Mall basement—two women drained, their hair turned white. Firework signal lit—whole gang comes to the rescue. Over a thousand members total." The message was short, but it said everything it needed to. Natalie lifted a brow as she read. So Selene really had come to deliver information. And it wasn't vague gossip either. It was detailed and precise. She already knew the innkeeper's wife used cursebugs, but the "beauty cursebug" was new to her. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she thought of Selina's sudden white hair that night. That had to be it."Two women drained, hair turned white" meant both Selina and Guinevere had fallen victim. The innkeeper's wife had drained their vitality, leaving them pale and aged, while she herself grew bright and youthful. No wonder that innkeeper's wife had been screaming about taking them alive after she and Cassian beat her half to death. So that had been her plan—to drain Natalie's vitality too. Natalie gave a cold scoff. "Keep dreaming." But one thing still didn't make sense. Why would that woman, a member of the Greendale Gang, risk helping her? Was she a friend of Selina's? Or did she have her own grudge against the gang and see Natalie as a weapon to eliminate her rivals? Or maybe she'd simply realized who was stronger and decided to switch sides. Whatever the reason, the message was useful. Most of it matched what Natalie already knew or suspected, making it believable enough. She curled her lip in mild irritation. The handwriting was awful—barely readable unless she stared at it. It was almost as bad as Olivia's scrawl. Natalie's eyes swept across the room. The note had said Selina and Guinevere were locked in the basement of the mall. And this building was the mall. She had seen the "Grand Mall" sign when she arrived with Anthony. And that woman had mentioned she was taking supplies to the basement. Earlier outside, she'd also mentioned that the "old lady with white hair" needed dry clothes because hers were soaked. That meant Selene was delivering those clothes to Selina and Guinevere right now. Natalie glanced in the direction Selene had gone and quietly made a mental note.Across the room, the two group leaders also watched Selene leave—but for very different reasons. Their eyes lingered on her short skirt. The women in the basement were always pitiful and broken, and after a while, that grew dull. Selene, though, was different. She was playful but obedient, knew how to present herself, and had a charm that pleased them. She was a breath of fresh air. Her looks were plain, but she made up for that with personality. They were used to ugly women anyway; Greendale was full of them. Once they finished dealing with these two nuisances, they planned to call Selene over and "talk" in private. They exchanged a look, each reading the other's thoughts, and grinned. Natalie, meanwhile, was already working through a plan. She knew the flare was a signal for backup, but she hadn't expected the gang to have over a thousand members. It was the largest group she had ever faced. If those thousand people were normal—capable of fear, pain, and hesitation—it would be easy. She and Cassian had the firepower to handle them. But they weren't normal. They charged forward like machines, without fear or self-preservation. If all thousand attacked at once, she wouldn't even have time to reload. Even if she managed to take down five hundred, the rest could overwhelm her, Cassian, and the pets through sheer numbers. If that happened, their only choice would be to escape through the storage space. But that wasn't why she was here. Cassian noticed her furrowed brow and guessed she had learned something important.The other men couldn't see it from where they stood, but he had seen it clearly—the woman who fell earlier had slipped Natalie something. He leaned close and whispered in her ear, "What was that?"