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"You knew." Jace caught her wrist before she could pull back. Her pulse hammered against his fingers. "You knew me before."
Mina tried to twist free. "Let go."
"The kid in the mirror had my face." He tightened his grip, not enough to hurt but enough to hold. "You grabbed me when I tried to answer. You were scared I'd remember something."
"I was scared the tower would eat you alive." She stopped fighting his hold. Her hand was shaking. "There's a difference."
"Is there?" He stepped closer. The exam table pressed into her back. Nowhere left to run. "You've been dragging me through this city like I'm a tool you picked up off the street. Now I find out you knew me before I woke up with half my skull missing."
"Jace—"
"When?" The word came out raw. "When did you treat me? What happened?"
She looked at his hand on her wrist, then at his face. Something cracked behind her eyes. "Three months ago. You came into my clinic bleeding from places blood shouldn't come from. Your meridians were shredded. I patched you up."
"And?"
"And you left." Her voice went flat. "You didn't tell me your name. You didn't tell me what you'd done. You paid in copper scrip and walked out before I could finish the sutures."
"Bullshit." He felt the tremor running through her arm. "You don't grab someone like that unless you know them. You don't look at them like they're about to disappear."
Mina's jaw tightened. "You want the truth? Fine. You came back four days later. Same wounds, worse. I told you whoever you were working for was going to kill you. You said you didn't have a choice."
"What did I mean?"
"I don't know." She met his eyes. "You passed out before you could explain. When you woke up, you didn't remember me. You didn't remember anything."
Jace let go of her wrist. His hand felt cold. "You've been using me to get into that tower. You knew I'd been inside before."
"I knew you were connected to it." Mina rubbed her wrist where he'd held her. Red marks bloomed on her skin. "I didn't know you were the key until the lines lit up in your head."
"So you just decided to drag me back in." He laughed, sharp and bitter. "Real kind of you."
"I'm trying to keep you alive." Her voice cracked on the last word. "The tower wants you. Gideon Ro wants you. Every ward family in this city is going to want you once they figure out what you can do. I'm the only one who's trying to stop them from tearing you apart."
"By lying to me."
"By keeping you moving." She pushed past him, heading for the cabinets along the far wall. "You think the truth would've helped? You think knowing you'd been to the tower before would've made this easier?"
"It would've been mine." He followed her. "You don't get to decide what I can handle."
Mina yanked open a drawer. Vials rattled inside. "You want to know what you can handle? Three months ago, you were dying. Your body was eating itself from the inside out. I had to flood your system with enough stabilizers to kill a normal person just to keep your heart beating."
She pulled out a syringe, hands still shaking. "You were calling for someone named Theo. You kept saying you had to finish the job. Then you flatlined."
Jace went still. "I died."
"For forty-three seconds." She didn't look at him. "I brought you back. And when you woke up, you had no idea who you were."
The fluorescent light overhead buzzed. Somewhere in the building, pipes groaned. Jace tried to grab onto something solid—a memory, a name, anything—but it all slipped through like water.
"Theo," he said slowly. "I know that name."
"He's an info broker. Runs with the independents." Mina turned back to him, syringe in hand. "If you were working with him, you were neck-deep in something bad."
"And you just let me walk around not knowing."
"I let you stay alive." She moved closer. The needle caught the light. "The tower leaves marks on people. I've seen it before. The ones who go in don't come out the same. And the ones who try to go back—" She stopped. "They don't come out at all."
Jace looked at the syringe. "What's that for?"
"Your meridians are lighting up again." Mina's hand steadied. "I can see them under your skin. You're about to rupture if I don't stabilize you."
"I feel fine."
"You feel fine because your pain receptors are fried." She grabbed his arm, fingers pressing against the inside of his elbow. "Hold still."
The needle slid in cold and sharp. Jace watched the clear liquid disappear into his veins. For a second, nothing happened. Then the world tilted.
"What the hell—"
"Side effect." Mina caught him before he hit the floor. Her arm wrapped around his ribs. "It'll pass."
He could feel her heartbeat against his shoulder blade. Fast and uneven. Her breath was warm on the back of his neck. The room spun, and all he had to anchor himself was the solid weight of her holding him upright.
"You're still lying to me," he said.
"I know." Her voice was quiet. "But I'm keeping you alive while I do it."
The dizziness started to fade. Jace straightened, and Mina let him go. The space between them felt too wide and too narrow all at once.
"We need to move." She was already heading for the back of the room. "That mirror incident just sent out a signal. Every sensor in a three-block radius knows something happened here."
"Where are we going?"
"Downstairs." She pushed aside a supply shelf. Behind it, a narrow door sat flush with the wall. "There's an old transit tunnel that connects to the underground market. We can lose them there."
Jace followed her to the door. "And then what?"
"Then we find Theo." Mina pulled a key from her pocket. Old brass, the kind that looked like it belonged in a museum. "If you were working with him before, he might know what you were doing at the tower."
"You think he'll tell us?"
"I think he'll tell us if we pay him enough." She slid the key into the lock. It turned with a grinding click. "Or if I threaten to report him to the ward council for selling blackmarket med supplies."
The door swung open. Stale air rushed out, carrying the smell of rust and old stone. A set of metal stairs descended into darkness.
Mina pulled a small light from her belt. The beam cut through the black, revealing graffiti-covered walls and water stains that looked like dried blood.
"Stay close," she said. "The market's territorial. If we get separated, you're on your own."
Jace started down the stairs. The metal creaked under his weight. "You really know how to sell a plan."
"I'm keeping you alive. I'm not here to make you comfortable."
They descended in silence. The light from above faded until there was nothing but Mina's beam and the sound of their footsteps echoing off stone. Jace counted fifty-three steps before they hit the bottom.
The tunnel stretched out in both directions. Old tile covered the walls, most of it cracked or missing. Rail tracks ran down the center, half-buried in debris. The air tasted like copper and mildew.
Mina turned left. "This way. The market's about two hundred meters down."
Jace followed, keeping one hand on the wall. The stone was cold and damp under his palm. "You've been down here before."
"I used to run supplies through here before the order kicked me out." Her voice carried in the enclosed space. "The underground's the only place you can move restricted med-tech without the ward families breathing down your neck."
"Why'd they kick you out?"
She didn't answer right away. The beam of light swept across a pile of old equipment—rusted pipes, broken panels, something that might have been a turnstile once.
"I broke protocol," she said finally. "Treated someone I shouldn't have."
Jace thought about the way she'd looked at him in the mirror room. The fear in her eyes when the child called his name. "Was it me?"
"No." Mina stopped walking. The light beam fixed on something ahead. "But it was because of you."
Before Jace could ask what that meant, he heard it. Voices. Multiple. Coming from the direction they were heading.
Mina killed the light. Darkness slammed down like a door closing.
"Don't move," she whispered.
Jace held his breath. The voices grew louder. Footsteps, at least six sets. The scrape of metal on stone. Then light—harsh and white—spilled around the corner ahead.
"They're already here," Mina breathed.
Jace's hand found hers in the dark. Her fingers were ice-cold. "Back door?"
"Only one." She squeezed his hand once, then let go. "Straight through them."
The footsteps were closer now. Twenty meters. Fifteen. Jace could see the shadows moving on the tunnel wall, stretched long and distorted.
Mina pulled something from her jacket. In the reflected light, Jace saw the shape of a blade. Short, surgical, the kind you could slip between ribs without hitting bone.
"When I say run," she whispered, "you run. Don't stop. Don't look back."
"What about you?"
"I'll be right behind you." Her voice had gone flat again. Combat voice. "Three seconds after I move."
The light rounded the corner. Six figures in dark coats. Ward family colors on their shoulders. The lead one had a scanner in his hand, the screen glowing blue.
He looked up. His eyes locked on Jace.
"There," he said.
Mina moved. The blade caught the light as she lunged forward. Jace ran.
Behind him, someone shouted. Metal clashed. Mina's voice cut through the chaos, sharp and commanding. "Go!"
Jace didn't look back. The tunnel blurred around him. His feet hit the tracks, nearly tripped, found solid ground again. The market entrance had to be close. Had to be—
Light bloomed ahead. Not harsh white like the ward squad. Softer. Colored. The sound of voices, dozens of them, layered over each other.
He burst through a doorway cut into the tunnel wall. The underground market opened up in front of him—a cavern filled with makeshift stalls, hanging lights, crowds moving between narrow aisles. The smell of cooking meat and ozone and something sharp he couldn't name.
Jace stopped, chest heaving. Turned back to the tunnel entrance.
Mina stumbled through five seconds later. Blood on her jacket. Not hers, he thought. Hoped.
She grabbed his arm. "Move. They're—"
The door behind her exploded open. The ward squad poured through. Not six anymore. More like twelve. And they all had weapons drawn.
Mina pulled Jace into the crowd. "Don't stop. Don't—"
Someone stepped into their path. Tall, broad-shouldered, wearing a coat that marked him as market security. He looked at Mina, then at the squad behind them.
"You brought ward soldiers into my market," he said.
Mina's hand tightened on Jace's arm. "We're just passing through."
"No." The security officer smiled. It didn't reach his eyes. "You're really not."
The crowd around them had gone still. Jace felt it like a pressure drop before a storm. Every exit suddenly had someone standing in front of it.
Behind them, the ward squad stopped at the market entrance. The lead officer raised his scanner. It beeped once.
"Jace Cheng," he called out. "You're wanted for questioning regarding unauthorized tower access. Come quietly and no one else has to get hurt."
Mina leaned close. Her lips brushed his ear. "When I move, you go left. There's a service door behind the noodle stall. It leads to the old water main. Follow it east until you hit daylight."
"What about you?"
"I'll buy you time." She let go of his arm. "Don't waste it."
Jace started to argue. Then he saw the way she was standing. Weight forward. Hand near the blade. Ready to burn every bridge she had left.
"Three seconds," she whispered.
The ward officer took a step forward.
Mina moved.
And the back door—the one she'd told him to run for—swung open from the outside.
A whole squad stood waiting in the frame. Different uniforms. Different family colors.
The lead officer smiled.
"Hello, Mina," she said. "Gideon wants a word."