Chapter 16 · The Price of Remembering

"You lied to me."

Riven didn't shout. He didn't have to. His voice was a jagged blade, cutting through the silence of the Echo Chamber.

He had her pinned. Mara’s back slammed against the cold, shimmering wall of the Core. His forearm pressed hard against her collarbone—not crushing her, but close. The heat from his body radiated through his leather coat, a sharp contrast to the freezing spectral mist swirling around their ankles.

"I didn't lie," Mara gasped. She gripped his wrists, her fingers trembling. "I just... didn't tell you everything. There's a difference."

"Not when 'everything' means playing me for a fool while I'm losing my goddamn mind," Riven snapped.

He leaned in. Inches. She could smell the metallic tang of ozone and old rain. His eyes, usually frozen slate, were burning.

"That thing—that ghost of me—it knew you. It didn't just recognize you. It hated you. Why?"

Mara tried to twist away. He shifted his weight, locking her in. Absolute power. He was the city's most feared spellbreaker; she was a thief with a contract eating her alive from the inside out.

"It's a survival tactic!" she yelled, her voice cracking.