Chapter 15 · Black-Market Healers Don't Work Free

The knife came first. Then Mira.

Rin barely had time to roll before the blade punched through the dirt where her head had been. Kael was already moving, hand on her wrist, yanking her back against the tunnel wall. The impact rattled her teeth. Above them, firelight flickered through the grate they'd just crawled out of, and voices were shouting orders that hadn't reached down here yet.

But the woman holding the knife wasn't one of theirs.

She was short, wiry, with black hair tied back so tight it pulled at the corners of her eyes. Her coat was stained dark along the sleeves—old blood, new blood, something in between. She didn't lunge again. Just tilted her head, knife loose in her grip, and looked at Rin the way you'd look at a debt come due.

"Mira Yao," Rin said. Her voice came out flat. No breath left for anything else.

Mira's mouth twitched. Not quite a smile. "You remember. Good. Saves time."

Kael's hand was still locked around Rin's wrist. She could feel his pulse through his palm, fast and hard. He hadn't let go since the fall, and he wasn't letting go now.