Chapter 4

The Council's Lead Auditor—Leah's boss, the guy who'd signed her performance reviews for three years—stood at the center. He was holding the torn page from the ledger. Margaret Vaughn's name was right there in faded ink, the edges burned like someone had tried to destroy it and changed their mind.

"You should've stayed in the cafe," the Auditor said. His voice was calm. Too calm. "Could've served coffee another decade. Paid off a few hundred more debts. Died quietly."

Aiden didn't move. "You set this up."

"Three hundred years ago." The Auditor smiled. "The moment you let that woman walk."

Leah made a sound. Not quite a gasp. More like all the air leaving her lungs at once.

The death mark pulsed. Her heartbeat stuttered.

"She's got maybe two minutes," the Auditor said. "You want to waste them talking?"

Aiden's hand went to his wrist. The debt tracker was still there, locked tight, eighteen hundred bars lit. Two hundred to go. He'd been so close.

Ink landed on his good shoulder. The raven's talons dug in, just enough to hurt. "Boss. We leave now or we don't leave."

"I'm not leaving her."

"Then we fight fifty reapers with one blade and a bleeding shoulder. Great plan."

The Auditor laughed. It wasn't a villain laugh. It was the kind of laugh you heard at a bar when someone told a joke that wasn't funny but everyone was too drunk to care. "You can't fight us, Crow. You're human now. The Council stripped your reaper core when they sent you down here."

Aiden looked at Leah. She was staring at the torn page in the Auditor's hand. Her lips were moving but no sound came out.

"Margaret's in Cell Nineteen," Aiden said. "You told me she'd be burned tonight."

"She will be." The Auditor folded the page, slipped it into his coat. "Right after we finish here."

"You're destroying evidence."

"I'm cleaning up a mess." The Auditor stepped forward. The other reapers moved with him, tightening the circle. "You left a pregnant woman alive. That woman had a daughter. That daughter became an auditor. And now that auditor knows the Council lied for three centuries." He looked at Leah. "Can't have that."

Leah's hand was shaking. The blade Aiden had given her was glowing faint blue, reacting to the death mark spreading across her skin. She tried to stand. Failed. Tried again.

"Leah." Aiden kept his voice low. "Don't."

"He has my mother's name." Her voice cracked. "He's going to burn her."

"I know."

"You knew." She looked at him. Her eyes were black now, the whites gone, replaced by the same void that lived in every reaper's core. "You knew the Council had her and you didn't tell me."

"I found out an hour ago."

"You should've told me the second you knew."

"You would've gone alone."

"I'm going anyway." She got one foot under her, then the other. The death mark was at her collarbone now. Her heartbeat was audible. Aiden could hear it from six feet away. Slow. Uneven. Stopping.

The Auditor sighed. "This is touching. Really. But we're on a schedule."

He raised one hand.

The reapers drew their blades.

Aiden moved.

He didn't think. Didn't plan. Just stepped in front of Leah and pulled the chain from around his neck. The reaper seal he'd worn for four hundred years, the one the Council had deactivated when they exiled him, the one that was supposed to be a useless piece of silver now.

He held it out.

"Take it," he said.

The Auditor stopped. "What?"

"My seal. My merit score. Every life I took for the Council. Four hundred years of service." Aiden's voice didn't shake. "You want to erase the mess? Fine. Erase me. Let her go."

"Boss." Ink's talons dug deeper. "Don't."

"Let her go," Aiden said again. "She didn't ask for this. I made the call three hundred years ago. I let Margaret walk. That's on me."

The Auditor stared at the seal. For a second—just a second—something moved behind his eyes. Not sympathy. More like curiosity. Like he was looking at a bug under glass and trying to decide whether to squash it or keep watching.

Then he smiled.

"No," he said.

The reapers moved.

Aiden shoved Leah back, hard, and swung the chain. The seal caught the first reaper across the face. Silver flared. The reaper screamed and dropped, his blade clattering on the pavement.

Two more came from the left. Aiden ducked, spun, caught one in the ribs with his elbow and the other in the throat with the chain. They went down.

Ink launched off his shoulder and went for eyes.

Leah was on the ground again, one hand pressed to her chest, the other still holding the blade. The death mark was at her jaw now. Her lips were blue.

"Aiden." Her voice was barely there. "Go."

"Not happening."

"You can't win."

"Don't care."

A blade came at his back. He twisted, felt it graze his ribs, and slammed the seal into the reaper's wrist. Bone cracked. The reaper dropped.

But there were too many.

One grabbed his bad shoulder. Pain exploded, white and sharp, and Aiden went down on one knee. Another reaper kicked the chain out of his hand. The seal skidded across the alley and stopped at the Auditor's feet.

The Auditor picked it up. Looked at it. Looked at Aiden.

"You really thought this would work," he said.

Aiden didn't answer. He was trying to breathe. Trying to stay conscious. Trying to figure out how to get Leah out of here before her heart stopped.

The Auditor pocketed the seal. "Here's what happens next. You die. She dies. Margaret burns. And the Council closes the file."

"Wrong."

The voice came from behind them.

Everyone turned.

Vera was standing at the mouth of the alley.

Vera Santos. Ghost. Regular. Dead ER nurse who spent her nights drinking espresso and helping Aiden track debts.

Except she wasn't just standing there.

She was glowing.

Not the faint gray glow that ghosts usually had. This was white. Bright. The kind of light that made you want to look away but couldn't.

The Auditor took a step back. "What—"

Vera's body jerked. Her head snapped up. Her eyes were gone. Just empty sockets filled with that same white light.

When she spoke, it wasn't her voice.

"The debt has been called."

Aiden's blood went cold.

He knew that voice.

Every reaper knew that voice.

The Executioner.

Vera's mouth moved but the words came from somewhere else. Somewhere deeper. Somewhere that didn't have air or sound or anything human.

"Leah Vaughn," the Executioner said. "You are named."

Leah's hand went to her chest. The death mark flared, brighter than before, and she screamed.

The Auditor stepped forward. "Wait. She's not—"

"She carries the mark. She is the debt." The light around Vera's body pulsed. "The Council will not interfere."

Aiden tried to stand. Failed. Tried again. His legs wouldn't hold him.

Ink landed on Leah's shoulder. The raven's feathers were smoking. "Boss. Do something."

"I don't—" Aiden's voice broke. "I don't know how to stop this."

The Executioner's light spread. It wrapped around Leah like chains, pulled her to her feet, dragged her toward Vera's body.

Leah fought. She swung the blade. It passed through the light and hit nothing.

"Aiden." She was crying now. Not sobbing. Just tears running down her face, mixing with the black veins of the death mark. "Please."

Aiden looked at the Auditor. "You did this."

The Auditor's face was pale. "I didn't call the Executioner. I wouldn't—"

"You marked her. You knew what would happen."

"I didn't think—" The Auditor stopped. Swallowed. "It wasn't supposed to go this far."

"Too late."

The light pulled Leah closer. She was five feet from Vera's body now. Four. Three.

Aiden's hand closed around something cold.

The reaper blade. The one Leah had dropped.

He didn't think. Just moved.

He drove the blade into his own chest.

The debt tracker on his wrist exploded. All eighteen hundred bars flared at once, bright enough to blind, and the light from the Executioner faltered.

Vera's body jerked. The white glow flickered.

"No," the Executioner said. "You cannot—"

"I'm calling the debt," Aiden said. Blood was filling his mouth. He could taste copper and smoke. "Eighteen hundred lives. I'm owed."

"You are exiled. You have no authority."

"Then take me instead." Aiden pulled the blade out. Shoved it toward Vera's body. "I'm right here. I'm the one who started this. Take me."

The Executioner was silent.

Then Vera's mouth moved again.

"The debt," the Executioner said slowly, "will be paid."

The light around Leah vanished.

She dropped.

Ink caught her before she hit the ground.

And the light around Vera's body turned red.