Chapter 16 · I Asked You to Kill Me

The alley spat them out beneath a dead clock.

Eve hit the cobblestones on one knee. Pain flashed up her leg, bright and immediate, but the sound that followed mattered more: the hourglass cracking shut in her palm, its silver frame cold against her skin.

Kieran landed beside her hard enough to scatter rainwater. One hand caught the wall. The other went straight to the knife at his belt.

He turned on her.

Not with recognition. Not with the fierce, furious relief that had lived in his eyes moments ago.

With calculation.

His gaze traveled over her face, her throat, the blood darkening her coat. It paused at the hourglass, then dropped to the letter clenched in his hand.

Sora stumbled through the alley mouth and slammed the iron gate behind them. Something struck the other side a heartbeat later. The gate buckled inward. A thin, metallic shriek threaded through the rain.

“They found us,” Sora gasped. “We have maybe a minute.”

“Thirteen,” Eve said.

Her voice sounded wrong. Too thin. Too distant.

Kieran’s knife came free with a quiet click. “Who are you?”

The question cut deeper than the memory vault’s glass blades.

Eve stared at him.