Chapter 24 · Same Kill Order

Kade stared at the paper in Mira's hand like it might bite him.

His mother's handwriting. Mira's name. Thirty years before Mira was born.

"This doesn't make sense," he said. His voice came out flat. The kind of flat that happened when your brain couldn't process any more impossible things in one night.

Mira turned the note over, then back again. Her jaw was tight. "My family name's not exactly common. Voss. She wrote Voss."

"Yeah." Kade wiped his palm on his coat. The black core under his ribs was still warm, still humming faintly from stabilizing the forge. "And she knew the core would wake up. She knew someone would need to—" He stopped. "She knew *you* would know what to do."

Mira looked up at him. Her eyes were sharp, but there was something else underneath. Something close to fear. "I don't know what to do, Kade. I don't know anything about this."

"Then why did she write your name?"

"I don't know!" Mira's voice cracked. She shoved the note back into the archive box and slammed the lid shut. The sound echoed in the narrow room. "My mother never mentioned your mother. My father's dead.