Chapter 23 · The Other Girl in the Black Box

The first shell screamed above Riftport.

Xia Lan felt it through the soles of her boots before she heard it. The sound arrived late, muffled by the ringing in her left ear, and then the eastern watchtower vanished behind a bloom of orange light. Stone, iron, and burning banners lifted into the night. A heartbeat later, the shockwave slammed into the square and sent ash skittering across the broken execution platform.

Milo ducked behind the Core’s severed control pillar. “That was battery three!”

“I know,” Nolan said.

He stood in front of Xia Lan with one hand pressed against his bleeding side, the other still gripping the shredded remains of the execution order. The paper had been stamped with his blood when he tore it apart. A red seal clung to his glove like a second wound.

Above them, the surviving city screens flickered.

For one instant, Ivra Kohn’s face filled every panel—calm, pale, and perfectly framed beneath the silver insignia of Central Command.

Then the image changed.

The woman on the screen had Xia Lan’s face.

Not this face. Not the narrow jaw, silver eyes, and black-veined wings that the continent called monstrous.