Chapter 6 · The Price of Remembering

"Get your hand off me!"

Riven didn't just pull back. He shoved Mara's wrist with enough force to send her reeling against the cold stone of the archives.

Mara stumbled, her palm stinging where the blood-red map flared. She looked up, catching a flicker of raw panic in his eyes. It was a look that didn't belong on the face of Gallowglass's most feared enforcer.

"It’s not me, Riven!" she yelled, shaking her hand. The ink pulsed under her skin like a second heartbeat. "The contract marked you. You're the sacrifice. Not me. You."

Eli shivered beside her, clutching the hem of Mara's jacket. "He’s not just a sacrifice," the boy whispered. "He’s the lock. That’s why the council cut his head open. They didn't want him remembering what he was protecting."

A jagged laugh echoed from the shadows. Soren Pike stepped forward, eyes hungry, staring at Mara's palm like it was a piece of fine art.

"Fascinating," Soren breathed. "The city's Warden—the man who breaks every illegal spell he finds—is actually the key to the whole machine. Tell me, Riven, does it feel like a void in your chest?