It stops.
The hand releases. Air floods my lungs and my knees hit the stone floor before I can catch myself. Everything is too loud. Too bright. The hub snaps back into focus: Venn frozen at his desk, Sira half-risen from her chair, Kade in the doorway with blood still on his hands from the informant.
Renan crouches in front of me. His face is calm, but his eyes are doing something I don't have time to read.
"What was that."
I can still feel her. The relief flooding through her body. The ache in her throat. Her heartbeat coming down from terror, slower now, evening out.
Bruises forming. I can feel them. Finger-shaped pressure on skin I've never touched.
"Someone strangled her." My voice sounds wrong. Scraped raw. "Picked her up by the throat. Held her until—"
I stop.
Kairis. Has to be. Coin's enforcer handles new tributes personally. Breaks them in. I've heard what he does. I've seen what's left of the ones who survive.
"I'm going to kill him."
Not a threat. Just—fact. Calendar item. Something that's going to happen.
Renan studies my face. Then he stands, extends his hand.
I take it. Let him pull me up.
"Which route," he says.
"Service tunnel. Drainage access near the merchant district. Comes up in their lower kitchens."
"How many?"
"Six. Quiet until we're inside."
"And when we're inside?"
I think about her heartbeat. The way it felt layered over mine—fast and frightened and fighting. The bruises I can feel forming on a throat I've never seen.
"Everyone who touched her dies."
Renan's mouth curves. That sharp, dark grin that means he's been waiting for this.
"I'll get the others." He turns toward the door, pauses. "You know this starts a war."
"I know."
"Coin will retaliate. Faith will have feelings about it. The Concord—"
"Can eat my cock."
"Good." The grin widens.
He leaves. I hear him in the corridor—names I recognize, Discord's best. The ones who move through dark without making noise. The ones who don't hesitate.
The weapons cache is against the far wall. My bone-blade is already at my hip—never take it off—but I add a pistol, two knives, a length of wire. I want options.
The pull hasn't eased. Still constant. But different now—I can feel her breathing. Her heartbeat settling. The ache in her body.
Mine.
