Don't Mess with the Girl with Candy novel Chapter 994

Juniper looks back.

The thick iron door is practically a solid wall, save for a narrow ten-centimeter viewing slot. Through the opening, a pair of bloodshot eyes stares out frantically.

"Are you the doctor Corvus hired?" Theia asks, eyeing the young, handsome "boy" in the blindfold with a hint of confusion.

"Don't look the part?" Juniper asks, a faint smile touching her lips. "Besides, there are two of us here. How did you know I was the doctor?"

"Instinct," Theia replies honestly, her nerves taut. "You don't carry yourself like an ordinary person."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Luella huffs, clearly offended. "So I look like an ordinary person? What's the difference between him and me?!"

Theia is completely thrown by the question. She stares blankly between the two of them. Trapped on Wraithfall Mountain for nearly twenty years, this is her first time interacting with outsiders, and the bizarre exchange brings a fleeting lightness to her chest.

"I just feel like she's the one," Theia says, shifting her gaze back to Juniper. Intuition is a hard thing to explain.

"But she's only twenty," Luella presses. "You can just *sense* a twenty-year-old master doctor?"

Anyone else would have immediately called it a scam.

"Age isn't a benchmark," Theia says, her pale, cracked lips curving into a bitter smile. "When I was thirteen, I had already memorized advanced medical texts and could diagnose and prescribe treatments on my own."

And her achievements in other fields... you'd need both hands to count them. Being a certified genius isn't just an empty title.

*That impressive?* Juniper raises an eyebrow, wanting to ask more, but the guard beside them impatiently interrupts. "Dr. Nocturne, it's time to go."

Corvus had merely instructed them to pass along the good news so Dr. Sommers would stop her hunger strike.

"My husband..." Theia's voice trembles with poorly concealed terror.

"He's alive," Juniper answers kindly. There's something about this woman's presence that feels deeply comforting. "He even opened his eyes earlier. It's just..."

If he lives, she lives. It's that simple.

"Dr. Nocturne, we really need to move," the Wraithfall guard insists again.

"Let's go," Juniper says. Under the blindfold, everything is pitch black. She allows the guard to guide her away.

Watching the young doctor's retreating back, Theia feels a sudden jolt of disorientation.

*Am I just missing Silas too much? Why did that kid's silhouette remind me so much of him?*

Once out of the underground facility and back in the heavily guarded main room, Juniper and Luella are finally allowed to remove their blindfolds.

"Why aren't you escorting us out?" Luella demands in annoyance.