Chapter 7 · The Second Body Beneath the Iron Bridge

Rainwater ran off the tribunal steps in black ribbons, carrying ash, blood, and scraps of Ivra Kohn’s printed evidence toward the storm drains.

Xia Lan stood at the center of the platform with her wrists locked in silver restraints. The metal had been etched with suppression runes. Every few seconds, one of the symbols flashed, and a cold pressure squeezed the bones beneath her skin. Her wings were pinned beneath a wet canvas harness. The feathers that had escaped hung in ragged silver strands against her back.

Across the square, the crowd had stopped shouting.

That silence was worse.

Ivra’s final words still seemed to hang beneath the rain-snarled sky.

She was not a weapon made by war. She was the one who built it.

Somewhere below the platform, a child began to cry. A man answered with a curse. Then the iron gates around the square groaned shut.

Nolan Vey stood three steps behind Xia Lan, his sword drawn but pointed at the ground. Blood had seeped through the bandage around his ribs. Rain streaked his face, gathered along the hard line of his jaw, and dripped from the end of his nose.