Chapter 29 · The Missing Guy Takes the Freight Elevator

The contract scraps are still smoking in my hand when the crowd closes in.

I can hear Noah somewhere behind the food court wall. His voice is thin through the speaker wire. "Ivy, you need to move. Vex sent three cars. They're parking at the south entrance right now."

I don't answer. My palm is bleeding where the metal edge of the hunter badge cut through. The backlash hit me the second I snapped it. My ribs feel like someone poured hot sand between the bones. Debt magic doesn't let go clean.

The shoppers are staring. Most of them backed up when I tore the contract, but a couple of the braver ones are still standing close. One guy in a stained jacket keeps looking at the broken badge on the floor like it's a bomb.

"Is that real?" he asks.

I pocket the scraps and wipe my hand on my jeans. "Was."

The south entrance doors bang open. I turn. Three hunters walk in wearing Vex's private colors. Black coats, no guild marks. The one in front has a stun baton clipped to his belt and a tablet in his hand.