Rain slicked the streets, turning the city into a maze of reflections. I kept running until my lungs burned, until my shoes slapped against water hard enough to splash into my eyes.
Every time I glanced back, I saw nothing. No hooded figure, no shadow stretching longer than it should. But I could feel them. Watching. Waiting for me to slow down.
I ducked into the side entrance of a subway station, pressing my back to the cold tile wall. My heartbeat was loud enough to be a beacon.
That's when the lights began to die — not all at once, but one by one, stretching the darkness toward me like a living thing.
The footsteps came next. Slow. Measured. Not the wet, uneven slap of a human sprint, but something deliberate.
He emerged from the shadows as if he'd been carved out of them. Tall. Black coat brushing his knees. Hair slicked back. And those silver eyes — the same as the man from the cathedral.
"You're wasting your breath, Kian Vale," he said, voice smooth enough to make my skin crawl. "They already know where you are."
"How do you know my—"
He cut me off with a tilt of his head. "You've been Blacklisted. That makes you my business."
I looked for exits. Two staircases, one to the street and one deeper underground. He noticed.
"Run," he said, almost kindly. "It'll make this more interesting."
The lights at the far end of the station flared for a moment — and in that burst I saw them: shapes moving in the dark, thin as wire, crawling along the ceiling.
Something in me snapped. I bolted for the lower staircase.
"You're making the wrong choice," he called after me. His voice didn't echo — it was in my head.
The stairs spiraled down into stale air and the smell of rust. At the bottom, a single flickering light revealed a woman sitting cross-legged on the floor, flipping through a leather-bound book.
She looked up at me, smirking. "Well, well. Another rabbit in the snare."
Before I could speak, she tossed something at my feet — a coin etched with symbols I didn't recognize.
"If you want to live, keep running until you see the sign," she said.
"What sign?" I asked.
Her smirk widened. "You'll know. It'll be the last thing before they catch you."