Chapter 16 · The Second Key

The laugh comes from behind us. Not an echo. Not a memory.

I spin around, knife up, and there she is.

Inez.

She's standing at the edge of the light, hands raised like I might shoot her on sight. Her coat's torn at the shoulder. Blood's dried on her knuckles. She looks like she ran here.

"Don't," she says. Her voice cracks. "Please. I came to get you out."

Ronan moves before I do. He puts himself between us, one hand out to block me, the other pressed to his ribs like the seal's about to split him open. "How'd you find us?"

"I tracked the contract." Inez's eyes flick to me, then away. "The binding leaves a trail. I've been following it since you two bolted from the hearing."

"Bullshit." My voice comes out flat. "You don't track contracts. You write them."

"I do both." She takes a step forward. Ronan tenses. She stops. "Mara, listen—"

"No." I move around Ronan, knife still up. "You listen. You were there. You saw them take my memories. You watched them scrub the blood off the floor and you didn't say a goddamn word."

Her face goes pale. "I was eight.