Chapter 29 · The Badge on the Other Side

The gate hummed like a busted power line.

Noah stared through the shimmer at his own face.

Not Lucan's. His. The nose he'd broken at sixteen. The scar under his left eyebrow from a call that went bad. The way his jaw tightened when he was trying not to lose it. All of it wrong, because it was looking back at him with someone else behind the eyes.

The real Lucan Vey stood on the other side of the rift, holding Noah's EMT badge between two fingers like it was evidence at trial.

"That's mine," Noah said. His voice came out flat.

Lucan's mouth—Noah's mouth—curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. "No. It's mine now. You took my body. I took your life."

The words hit like a fist to the chest. Noah's hands curled at his sides. He could feel Mira half a step behind him, her breath steady, her blade probably already in reach. She hadn't said a word since the gate opened, but her presence pressed against his back like a live wire.

"Where is she?" Noah's throat tightened. "My sister. Where's Emma?"

Lucan tilted his head. The angle was all wrong.