Chapter 25 · The Dead Name

"Give me the core, Adrian. Now."

Adrian stood between me and three armed Tribunal guards, one hand clamped over his ribs. Blood slipped through his fingers and soaked the white front of his shirt.

Behind him, the sealed memory vault pulsed red. My mother's witness shard sat inside its glass cradle, glowing with the last recording she'd left behind.

Adrian looked at me. "You want the thing that can clear my name?"

"I want the thing that can stop them from taking the shard."

The lead guard raised his weapon. His black mask showed no face. Only Chief Justice Marlow's silver seal.

"By order of the Meridian Tribunal," he said, "surrender the witness shard and step away from the heir."

Adrian's fingers tightened against his wound. "Try taking it."

"You don't get to play brave now." I pointed at the black case beneath his coat. "You dragged me into this vault, got stabbed by your own security, and now you're holding the only evidence that might prove you didn't kill my mother. Hand it over."

His eyes cut to mine.

That look still wrecked my pulse. Dark. Sharp. Too close.