“How many?” I twist in my seat, counting the vehicles gaining behind.
“Three pursuit units. More closing in.” Kane’s eyes flick to the mirrors again. “They’re herding us toward containment zones. The real extraction team won’t be in vehicles. They’ll be in the shadows, locking off exits before we reach them.” His laugh holds no humor. “Kian doesn’t like losing his toys.”
We plunge into the Aureum Quarter. Market stalls and pedestrian transports scatter, shouts trailing behind us. Kane pulls into a service alley, walls scraping metal. We emerge in the Everreach district seconds later.
“Margaux said you’d have the glamour potions,” Kane says, taking another sharp turn that sends me scrambling for balance. “In your bag. We need them. Now.”
I dig through the pack, fingers numb from adrenaline. Glass vials clink together, light catching on the iridescent liquid inside; shifting colors trapped in crystal.
Kane inputs commands on the dash and the wheel locks, countdown flashing:2:00.
“When we reach the Gravemarch Bridge,” he says, voice thrumming with barely contained excitement, “we jump.”
“The car will be moving at full speed!” The potion slips in my grip as another enforcer vehicle locks onto us. Its front is bristling with weapons, the pulse cannon beginning to charge.
“That’s the beauty of it.” Kane swerves, narrowly avoiding a blast that leaves the pavement smoking. “They’ll chase our empty ride while we take a refreshing dip.”
“This isn’t funny, Kane! We’ll die!”
“Come on, princess, where’s your sense of adventure?” He veers onto a narrower lane, diving under one of the old aqueducts. The pursuing vehicles slow, rerouting. “Besides, Margaux would resurrect me just to kill me again if I let anything happen to you. Ninety seconds. Are those vials ready?”
I stare at them in my shaking hands, then at the river glimpsed through gaps in the buildings. The water glints beneath the bridge, deceptively peaceful. “There has to be another way.”
“Sure. We could surrender. Let Kian dissect you while Dom watches. Personally?” Kane’s eyes meet mine, suddenly serious. “I prefer the jump.”
The Gravemarch Bridge looms ahead, steel arches blotting the skyline. I uncork the first vial and pass it to Kane, nearly spilling mine as the car jolts over a cracked slab of road, the liquid burning down my throat. For a heartbeat nothing happens—then my body fractures.
Skin crawls as joints grind and rearrange, vision smearing while bones realign. My face reshapes, hair darkens, shoulders compress. The magic carves me into anonymity, limbs thickening and silhouette eroding until I could be any nameless worker from the Lower Rings.
Kane downs his potion in one gulp, grimacing as the glamour takes hold. His massive frame collapses inward, deadly grace melting into middle-aged slouch. The dangerous glint in his eyes dims behind newly sagging features. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was another burned-out desk jockey, trudging home after a twelve-hour shift.
“Thirty seconds!” The enforcer vehicles are gaining, their sirens drowning out the constant industrial drone of the Rift District ahead.
There’s no time to weigh this. No room for hesitation. I grip the door handle and fix my eyes on the water below.
“I can barely swim!” My voice cracks as I stare at the drop ahead. The river churns, dark and unnatural, cutting through concrete and steel.
“Perfect time to learn.” Kane’s grin doesn’t match his new face. His hands dance across the control panel, programming our empty vehicle’s death run. “When those doors open, you’ve got three seconds to jump. Hesitateand—”
“We die?”
“Oh, we probably die either way. But this version has better odds.” He slams the emergency release, and metal screeches as the doors tear open, wind howling through the cabin. The bridge races beneath us. “Now!”
I hesitate for a heartbeat, but something inside me surges. Not taking control, but showing me exactly how to move. My body responds to muscle memory that isn’t mine, twisting as I launch into empty air. For one endless moment, I’m suspended between sky and river, time frozen.
Then, the impact hits.
Water rushes up my nose, shockingly cold and tasting of metal, and my clothes drag me down as I thrash toward what I hope is the surface. The pools I swam in as a kid never prepared me for this—current yanking me sideways, lungs screaming, vision blurring at the edges.
When spots start dancing across my eyes, strong hands grab my jacket. Kane hauls me up, and I break the surface gasping, chest shredding with every breath.
“Kick,” he orders, dragging me toward the bank while sirens scream overhead. “Unless you want to see what’s at the bottom of this toxic soup.”
We crawl onto grimy concrete, soaked and shaking. The glamour holds, but our dripping clothes might as well be a spotlight. Kane yanks me into a narrow alley between decaying buildings, where shadows offer thin protection from the eyes that never sleep in this city.
I glance up. Everreach’s towers glint in the distance, detached from the filth below. From here, they don’t resemble progress. They look like gates welded shut.
“Need to move,” Kane pants. “Darkmoor security has got eyes everywhere, even here. Just less of them.”
