Chapter 25 · Her Name in the Sky

The first contract hit Evelyn in the teeth.

Not literally. It felt like it did.

She stumbled into the side of a shuttered tram kiosk, one hand over her mouth, the other locked around Nolan’s wrist before he could fall face-first onto the street.

Black fire crawled across the clouds above them.

Not normal fire. Contract fire.

Her name burned through it in letters taller than buildings.

EVELYN MORROW.

Every damn person in the city could see it.

“Tell me that’s not you,” Mara said.

Evelyn spat blood onto the pavement. “I’d love to. Really. But I’m having a hard time lying with my nervous system on fire.”

Nolan’s fingers crushed around hers.

He was pale under the grime and blood. Too pale. The black curse lines under his collar had spread again, crawling up his throat like spilled ink.

Around them, people stopped in the middle of the street.

A delivery rider dropped his bike.

Two women outside a late-night noodle place stared up at the sky, hands over their mouths.

Then a man near the tram tracks looked at Evelyn.

His eyes went wide.

“Oh shit,” Mara muttered.

The man pointed. “That’s her.