Page 28 of Veil of Ashes

The pain is sharp. Deep. But not fatal.

Pain I can handle.

Betrayal?

That burned longer.

They knew where I’d be. The locker. The diner. The alley.

Too clean. Too specific.

Had to be a leak.

Was it the courier? The scar-lipped idiot who couldn’t keep his hands from shaking?

Or…

I squeeze my eyes shut.

Was it Kieran?

My thoughts churn. No proof. No answers. But instinct doesn’t ask for logic. It pulses. It warns.

He knew about the diner. The drop radius. My fallback paths.

He’d warned me. Protected me. Touched me like he meant it.

But lies can kiss you, too.

I pull gauze from my coat pocket and press it hard against the gash. It sticks to the blood instantly.

Sirens scream a few blocks away. A soft wail at first, then closer. Not for me.

But I don’t move.

Can’t.

I let my head rest against the gate, eyes locked on the boarded flower shop where I first learned to hide.

Where I first taught myself to disappear.

I finished the ledger.

I kept my word.

But now the ink is red—and it’s mine.

Chapter 9 – Kieran

Rain taps the pavement, soft and steady, as I pull up to the east edge of Fremont. The old flower shop looms ahead, boards nailed tight over its windows. Sylvara’s safehouse—a relic swallowed by dust and time.

It’s just past three in the morning. The city’s quiet now, the storm that tore through hours ago leaving only echoes. I cut the engine, stepping into the damp chill.

Then I see her. She’s slumped against the gate, a dark shape in the flicker of my headlights. Blood stains her shirt, pooling black under the faint glow.

My chest locks up. I’m out of the car fast, boots hitting wet concrete. She’s still, too still, head lolling against the rusted bars.

I kneel, fingers pressing her neck. Her pulse stutters under my touch, weak but there. Alive. I exhale hard.

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