Chapter 27 · Your Death Wasn't Random

The shard sits on the counter between us. My death date. Stamped into metal that shouldn't exist outside the mall's foundation.

I can't pick it up. I don't have hands. But I can feel it—cold, sharp, wrong—like it's bleeding static into the air. Ivy's staring at it too. Her knife's still out. Eli's standing by the elevator, arms crossed, watching us both like we're about to explode.

"So." My voice comes out through the nearest speaker, flat. "Someone killed me. Then plugged me into this place."

"Looks like it," Eli says.

Ivy doesn't say anything. Her jaw's tight. Her knuckles are white around the knife grip.

I push a little harder into the lights overhead. "You knew."

"I didn't—" She stops. Breathes. Tries again. "I didn't know it was you. I knew the mall was tied to a death. That's what the city records said. Some guy got flattened by a drone, same day the power grid spiked under this block. I thought it was coincidence."

"Coincidence."

"Yeah."

"My coincidence has a timestamp."

She flinches. Good. I want her to flinch. I want someone to feel as scraped-out as I do right now.

Eli clears his throat.