Chapter 17 · The Woman in the Furnace

The woman in the furnace knew his name.

Kade stopped three steps from the threshold. The air coming out of that room wasn't hot. It was cold, the kind that sat in your lungs and didn't leave. Mira was right behind him, close enough he could hear her breathing pick up.

"Kade," the woman said again. Her voice scraped, like she'd been screaming for days and finally gave up. "You look just like her."

He didn't move. The chain around her wrists was standard judgment tower issue, the kind they used on people waiting for the burn. But the runes carved into the furnace wall behind her weren't standard anything. They pulsed faint red, feeding into the chain, into her.

Mira's hand found his elbow. "Don't."

"She knows my name."

"Yeah, and that's exactly why we walk."

The woman shifted, and the chain rattled. Her skin was pale, the kind of pale that came from never seeing daylight. Her hair might've been dark once. Now it was matted, stuck to her face in uneven streaks. But her eyes were sharp. Too sharp.

"They told me you were dead," the woman said. She wasn't looking at Mira. Just Kade.