Chapter 10 · He Was There When Elise Died

"Mara." Kieran's voice cuts through the room. "Don't—"

The screens flood.

Every dead monitor lights up at once—cracked tablet on the shelf, ancient desktop tower in the corner, busted phone screen half-buried under takeout boxes. All of them show the same thing.

A street. Rain. Pavement slick and black under yellow streetlights.

I know that corner.

"Shut up," I say before he can finish.

Two blocks from the apartment where Elise died. The footage is grainy, no timestamp, no Registry watermark. Just the street, empty except for the rain.

Then a figure stumbles into frame.

Elise.

She's clutching her side, jacket dark with blood. Face pale, lips moving like she's talking to someone, but there's no sound. Three steps. She staggers. Catches herself against a lamppost.

Then he appears.

Kieran.

He's not limping. Not bleeding. He walks up behind her, and in his hand—

A knife.

The blade catches the light. Slick. Red.

"No." The word breaks out of me. "No, that's not—"

"It's not real." He moves toward me, but I spin, and the bond flares hot in my chest. He stops. His face is gray, eyes too bright. "Mara, listen. That footage is fake. Dorian can manipulate—