Chapter 27 · Steelhook Pulls the Trigger

The file kept playing and I couldn't move.

On the cracked screen, a kid stood in the middle of a sand circle. Maybe five years old. Black hair. Skinny arms. The sand around him twisted up like a living thing, and the sky above him started to turn yellow-brown.

That kid was me.

"Pause it." My voice came out flat. Echo hit a key but I barely heard the click. "Pause it."

"Kai, we need to—"

"I said pause it!"

The room went quiet except for the hum of the old servers. Ashmark stood by the wall, hands loose at his sides, watching me like I was a bomb he didn't know how to defuse. The girl—what did she call me? Something I should remember but couldn't—she'd backed up toward the door.

I looked at the frozen frame. At the sand spinning around that kid. Around me.

"So that's it." I turned to Ashmark. "The first sandstorm. That was me."

He didn't deny it. Just nodded once, slow.

"You knew." My hands were shaking. "You knew the whole time."

"Not the whole time," Ashmark said, voice careful. "I didn't know they were using a child. Not until after."

"After what?