Zara stopped wearing Portrait of a Lady.
The bottle remained unopened on the table in her room.
She stopped training.
She stopped speaking to the Council.
Her grandmother was dead.
Kofi had lost his power.
Adisa had nearly died.
Everyone close to her had paid a price.
The Ikoyi house smelled wrong without Amouage Guidance.
Her grandmother’s room still carried a faint trace of it, but each day it became weaker.
Zara avoided the room.
She remained inside the house for four days.
On the fifth evening, Adisa entered her bedroom.
Gris Charnel arrived with him.
Zara turned away.
“Leave.”
“No.”
“I do not want you here.”
“That is not true.”
“Everyone I love gets hurt.”
“Love is not the wound.”
His fragrance irritated her.
It was alive.
Warm.
Present.
Her grandmother’s was disappearing.
Zara stood.
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“I may never forgive that fully.”
“I know.”
“I cannot lose you.”
“You do not protect love by refusing to live inside it.”
She struck his chest.
Gris Charnel rose between them.
He did not move.
She struck him again.
Then... she began to cry.
Adisa held her.
His fragrance surrounded her—fig, black tea and sandalwood.
Not Guidance.
Not safety.
Something different.
A person choosing to remain.
Zara kissed him—with grief, anger and hunger.
He answered with the same force.
They moved against each other as if touch could prove they were still alive.
A knock sounded at the door.
Babycat reached them from the hallway.
“Zara?” Amara called. “Are you all right?”
Zara did not answer.
The unopened bottle of Portrait of a Lady stood on the table.
Its cap moved.
The bottle opened by itself.
Rose and incense filled the room.
Zara pulled away from Adisa.
Then another scent rose beneath it.
Amouage Guidance.
Not from the hallway.
Not from her grandmother’s room.
From Zara.
Adisa became still.
“Zara...”
Her power returned.
Not as it had been.
Portrait of a Lady carried Guidance inside it now.
Rose beneath pear.
Incense beneath vanilla.
Zara’s power and her grandmother’s final gift—joined.
Amara opened the door slightly. Dr. Obi and Kofi stood behind her.
Babycat entered first, warm and uncertain.
“What is happening?” Amara asked.
Kofi looked around the room.
“I can smell her.”
Zara touched her wrist.
Portrait of a Lady rose.
Guidance answered beneath it.
She looked at all of them.
“I know how to end this.”