Chapter 16 · Stay Out of the Well

The keycard's screen didn't flicker. Didn't fade. Just sat there in my palm, those six words glowing like they'd been burned in.

*Don't let Kai enter the Storm Well.*

I wanted to throw it. Wanted to crush it. My hand shook, sand spilling from my knuckles, and I couldn't remember why I'd come to this district in the first place. Someone's face kept slipping through my head—laughing, maybe? A friend. I'd had a friend's name five minutes ago.

Now I didn't.

"Kai." Ashmark's voice, low and careful. He stood three steps back, like I was a live wire. "Put it down."

"It knows my name," I said. My voice didn't sound like mine. "It knows where I'm going."

"Yeah. And it's telling you not to."

I looked up. Ashmark's face was all hard lines and old scars, but his eyes—there was something in them I hadn't seen before. Fear, maybe. Or guilt.

"You knew," I said. "You knew about the Well."

He didn't answer right away. Just rubbed the back of his neck, that tell he had when he was about to lie or tell half the truth. "Everyone knows about the Storm Well. It's where the collapse started.