But whether it was the Old Corpse Witch or General Winter Wolf, in that moment of mutual gaze, they both looked at each other as if staring at a stranger full of ulterior motives.
The emotions that death takes away cannot simply be awakened by a bloodline connection, and the world of the living offers limited mercy to the dead. Moreover, the body Old Baldwin now occupied was not his original remains.
With faces so different, the only bond distinguishing the two from strangers was a shared surname.
What lay between them was the upheaval of nearly 400 years of time.
No one spoke at first. Everyone stared at these two figures until, after the suffocating silence, the Old Corpse Witch broke the quiet:
"Do the gardenias in Dmitri County still bloom every year?"
It sounded like a simple question, but General Winter Wolf's eyes instantly narrowed.
This was a code.
A secret passed down only to the heads of the Baldwin family.
