Chapter 22 · The Ash Ledger - Chapter 22: Names on the Wall

The Ledger was reading names.

Mara heard them through the cracked stone, through the dust still falling from where Rowan had torn himself into the collapse. Every name came with a number. A location. A heartbeat count.

"Sable Cray. Section four. Forty-two beats remaining."

She knew that name. Medical corps. Nineteen years old.

"Torin Vess. Section nine. Eighteen beats."

One of hers. He'd fought at the riverbank.

Rowan was on his knees three feet away, blood running from his nose. The mark around his wrist was burning so bright she could see bone through the skin.

"What the hell is it doing?" she said.

He didn't look up. "Counting."

"Counting what?"

"Everyone it can reach."

The voice kept going. Name after name. Some she recognized. Most she didn't. The numbers were dropping. Forty beats. Thirty. Twenty.

"Make it stop," Mara said.

Rowan shook his head. "It's not asking me. It's telling me."

She grabbed his shoulder and yanked him around. His eyes were bloodshot, pupils blown. "Then tell it to shut up."

"I can't."

"You're the one with the mark—"

"It doesn't care what I want." His voice cracked. "It's making a list, Mara. It's deciding who's worth keeping.