Chapter 18 · Inside Tide

"Every generation." The words came out flat. Dead.

Carson didn't move. His hand stayed on the parapet, three feet from mine. The comm in his ear crackled with Mira's voice shouting coordinates, but he didn't look away.

"What."

"Every generation," I said again. "My family fed people to the tide. Not once. Not an accident. A rotation."

The air between us went cold. I watched his jaw tighten, watched the muscle jump under the scar on his cheek. He was deciding whether to put me over the wall right now or wait for an audience.

"How many."

"I don't know. The log only goes back six cycles. Hundreds. Maybe more."

His fingers curled against the stone. "And you."

"I didn't know."

"That's not what I asked."

I met his eyes. "The system flagged my bloodline the second you locked that ring on me. You think I wanted this?"

"I think you've been running your whole life and didn't ask why."

That landed. I felt it crack something in my chest. My hand went to the ring on my wrist, the one that hadn't unlocked since the wall upgrade. The one that whispered at me every time the tide surged.

"Carson."