CHAPTER 9: GIGI

Gigi struggles to keep pace with Knox as he leads her deeper into the Louisiana bayou, where he once trained with Brady and Calla under Severin Thorp. Knox resists questions about the past, but when he senses movement, he orders Gigi to wait and confronts Brady in the dark. Gigi follows and breaks up a tense standoff, then blurts that she has seen Calla alive as the cloaked Woman in Red.

Gigi details her encounter: the Woman in Red revealed heterochromia—one blue eye, one brown—and intimate knowledge of Calla’s background, including that Calla was not her father’s biological child despite being the first Thorp daughter in generations. Brady, desperate yet skeptical, argues someone could fake the eyes, but recognizes Knox’s confirmation that Calla had confided in him, not Brady.

Gigi adds that the Woman in Red called herself the Watcher and the Lily, and that Zella—Brady’s sponsor—once called them sisters. Brady presses for more, briefly trying to manipulate Gigi’s sympathy until Knox intervenes. Gigi rebuffs Brady and clarifies that Zella kidnapped her to lure Calla after leaving Gigi a cryptic lily.

Rohan and Savannah arrive, tracking Gigi’s location. They present a fleur-de-lis necklace they found in Severin’s shack, inscribed “for the girl who would be queen,” which Brady claims his sponsor sent as proof of Calla-related intel. The inscription heightens the suggestion of Calla’s special status.

Brady insists Calla must need them; Knox counters that Calla chose to leave and reveals a scar at the base of his neck from the night she warned him never to follow—words he repeats verbatim, exposing deep hurt and finality. Recognizing the personal nature of the confrontation, Gigi tries to withdraw, but then discovers an enormous white calla lily arranged on a root, implying surveillance or a message from Calla.