Noah & Sophia

While Elinor and Doctor Druid kept Lilith engaged, Apex Ace's mind was racing—piecing together the puzzle of when Lilith became a Curse Slave using what she had revealed so far.

If he could understand her better, maybe—just maybe—they could all walk away from this without becoming child murderers.

The age of a second grader was usually around seven or eight years old. Lilith was eight now, which meant she would have been seven when she fell ill and dropped out of school. That meant…

It had taken her less than a year to become a Curse Slave. That was fast. Amazingly fast. But the shocking part wasn't how little time it took for her to become a curse slave but under what circumstances she had achieved it. 

As a sick seven- or eight-year-old kid, Lilith managed to pull off something that even the C.I.B.'s best, hand-picked agents had failed to do. Now, that was just amazing.