Chapter 14 · The Dead File

The maintenance vault door shuddered beneath Eve’s palm.

On the other side, something laughed in Kieran’s voice.

Not the low, crooked amusement he used when a lock insulted him. Not the breathless laugh he had given her in the rain, years ago—or yesterday, or some stolen piece of time she could no longer reach. This sound scraped through the metal like a blade dragged across bone.

Sora flinched away from the door. Blood still gleamed on her thumb where she had opened the seal. The contract mark on her wrist had stopped glowing, but the letters remained etched beneath her skin.

SORA BELL.

WITNESS ACTIVE.

“Tell me there’s another way out,” Eve said.

“There’s always another way out.” Sora’s voice cracked. She turned too quickly, nearly slipping on the damp stone floor. “The Assembly built this vault under the old Meridian line. Maintenance tunnels, dead conduits, emergency lifts. I’ve seen the plans.”

“Seen them, or memorized them?”

Sora’s eyes flashed. “I was a clerk.”

“You were planted inside the Assembly.”

“I was forced inside the Assembly.”

The door buckled inward.

A thin line of brass light appeared around its frame. The hinges screamed.