Chapter 21 · Echoes on the Midnight Line

The letter kept breathing.

Eve heard it beneath the hiss of the old exchange station, beneath the groan of iron rails buried under Nacre City, beneath Kieran’s ragged breathing as he leaned against the cracked signal pillar. Her own voice seeped from the folded paper in thin, intimate whispers.

Thirteen minutes have begun to wake inside you.

The words faded. The paper remained warm against her palm.

For one heartbeat, nothing moved.

Then the station lights blinked, and the platform filled with rain.

Not real rain. Eve knew that because the drops stopped halfway between the ceiling and the ground. Hundreds of silver beads hung in the air, each one reflecting a different fragment of the station: Sora crouched behind a luggage crate, Kieran with blood staining his shirt, the white-haired emissary being dragged into the dark by her own oath-chain.

And in every reflection, the clock above the platform showed a different time.

11:47.

11:53.

12:00.

12:13.

Eve’s fingers tightened around the death letter. “Sora.”

“I see it.” Sora’s voice came from behind her, too close and too young for the terror in it. “The line is coming back online.