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“We go, then,” I say.

CHAPTER 18

THE MEMORIES

We go inside, and the first thing I notice is the security desk. The guards are asleep. Not normal asleep. Not bored-night-shift asleep. Their bodies slump in the chairs, heads tilted at wrong angles, mouths slightly open, breathing shallow but steady. Nero crosses to them and grips one by the shoulder, shaking him hard enough to make the man’s head roll forward. Nothing. The guard doesn’t wake. Doesn’t even twitch.

“They’re alive,” Nero says.

“A charm,” I say, scanning the empty lobby. “Or vampire compulsion.”

The unfinished lobby rises around us with exposed wires, plastic sheets and a cold skeleton. Nero looks toward the elevators, jaw tight, one hand flexing at his side.

“Which floor?” he asks.

“Let’s start at forty and work down.”

Thankfully, the elevators work. The ride up feels too quiet. We get out on the 40th floor, and the view is haunting. You can see the whole city. The spaces don’t have dividing walls yet, so everything is visible. The air sweeps through the empty rooms and unfinished floors like a low whistle moving through concrete and steel. Almost mournful.

There is no one here. We keep going lower, floor by floor, until we reach the thirty-first.

And there he is. Julian. In a single chair that faces the city.

His body is slumped over with silver chains binding his wrists, chest and throat. Old blood spatters the concrete around him.

Nero catches my hand, and I flinch. For one sick second, I wonder if this is the moment he decides I’ve seen too much.

“You think it’s safe?” he asks, eyes locked on the body. “No traps?”

I swallow. “Only one way to find out.”

I step forward slowly, watching the floor for runes or signs, anything. Nothing marks the concrete. The body sits facing the city, just like the last time I saw him. When he admired the skyline. He wears the same suit from the hotel but it’s dirty with blood. His blond hair falls over his forehead. The warm, almost kind face I remember, now twisted in pain. His skin is gray and dry, stretched too tight over bones.

The worst part is his chest.

Open and empty.

They cut his fucking heart out.

I hesitate. I don’t want to do this. I promised myself I would never do this again. But seeing his body. There is so much pain in his face I want to cry. He died alone here. No one deserves that. I know touching him will damage me. It will give me more nightmares to endure. Maybe too much time has passed. Maybe I will see nothing. But I have to know.

I touch the body, and the visions come.

I feel pain. Excruciating, endless, white-hot pain. They were torturing him. Julian is screaming his lungs out. His eyes are bleeding. Ghouls drag him. Necromancers hold him down. This pain, the sharp electric agony splitting through his bones, doesn’t belong to necromancers. It’s witch magic.

Five hooded figures stand around him, their faces hidden, voices low and steady as they chant. Power gathers in the room and passes through my body like thousands of needles.

I fight them.

No. Not me. Julian fights them.

His fingers curl around the arms of the chair until metal cracks. He calls his blood magic, and it answers like a red tide. Two of the hooded figures collapse. Blood pours from under their robes, spreading across the concrete in thick streams. The remaining three strangers keep chanting, louder and desperate. Julian’s fangs ache like fire. His entire body locks tight, every muscle straining as the chains start to crack. They won’t hold him. He throws everything he has into breaking free, his final chance to escape. Just as he tears against the silver, a hooded figure jumps forward and drives a cold blade straight through his chest.

The pain so deep, my own heart is almost bleeding. His body falls, limp against the chair, and I hit the floor screaming.

My body convulses against the concrete. Pain tears through me in waves, and I claw at the ground until my nails split. I can’t breathe. Can’t see. Can’t find my way back through Julian’s death. Strong hands grab my face.

“Hey.” Nero’s voice cuts through the dark. “Lara. Open your eyes. You’re here. With me. Lara, come back.”