Lily POV My heart sank. Retired? But I had just spoken with her a few weeks ago. Around that time, I and Kai were having issues with the girl he rescued. Unless... unless that conversation had taken place longer ago than I remembered. The past week had been such a blur of trauma and recovery that my sense of time might be completely off. "No, thank you," I said, forcing a polite smile. "I was just hoping to continue a conversation we'd started." Mrs. Foster nodded sympathetically. "I understand. Mrs. Thompson mentioned she had several ongoing research projects with students. If you'd like, I can try to contact her—she left forwarding information for academic inquiries." "That would be wonderful," I replied, making a mental note to return tomorrow with more specific questions about how

