I didn’t reach for my mask. There was no point. The way Chloe looked at me—the sneering familiarity, the absolute certainty in her eyes—told me the disguise was useless.

"How did you know?" I asked, keeping my voice perfectly level. I didn't raise my hands. I just stood in the center of the vault,

The absolute darkness of the smuggler’s tunnel pressed in on us, heavy with the scent of damp earth, spilled wine, and the sickeningly sweet tang of Kaelen’s blood.

"Keep moving," Kaelen rasped again, his voice tight with barely suppressed agony.

I didn't listen to his bravado. I slung his heavy

Fire.

It started in my stomach, a cold, sharp burning that rapidly turned into an inferno. The glass slipped from my fingers, shattering against the hardwood floor. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't scream.

*“You had to be removed,”* Chloe’s voice hissed in my mind, a venomous echo bouncing off the