Chapter 16 · The Files Under the Execution Platform

The token burned a hole through Rin's pocket the entire way back.

She didn't run. Running drew eyes, and eyes meant questions she couldn't answer. So she walked, shoulders tight, jaw locked, every step measured like she wasn't about to crawl into the one place in this city that had killed her three times already.

The execution platform.

Kael was waiting two blocks south, tucked into the shadow of a collapsed tea house that hadn't served anything but dust in years. He straightened the second he saw her, his hand already on the hilt of his blade.

"You get it?"

Rin pulled the token free and tossed it. He caught it without looking, eyes still on her face.

"Mira says there's a door," Rin said. "Under the platform."

Kael went still. Not the kind of still that came from surprise. The kind that came from hearing something he'd suspected all along and hated being right about.

"Of course it is," he muttered.

Rin crossed her arms. "You knew."

"I guessed." He turned the token over in his palm, studied the faint characters etched into the metal. "Your mother's case went cold the day they built that platform.