Chapter 17 · Don't Go Upstairs

The contracts are still glowing.

Every window in the tower, floor after floor, lit up like someone flipped a switch on a circuit I didn't know existed. Red ink burning through glass. I can see it reflected in Lucien's eyes as he pushes himself off the floor, one hand pressed to the wound in his side where the silver chain tore through.

Vivian's voice is gone. The speakers cut to static, then nothing.

"Evelyn." His voice is rough. Too quiet. "We need to move."

I don't move.

"She said don't go to the roof." My wrist is still burning where the contract sits, that red ink line that appeared the first night. It's hot now. Pulsing. "What's on the roof?"

"Not now."

"Yes, now." I take a step back. The emergency lights flicker. Somewhere below us, something crashes. Glass, maybe. Or a door. "You said you'd keep me safe. You said the contract meant I could trust you. So why is a dead girl telling me not to let you take me upstairs?"

He straightens. Blood's still seeping through his shirt, dark and wrong. Not red. Darker. He's not healing as fast as he should. The silver's still in him.