Kai hit the stairwell running. The building smelled like wet concrete and old smoke. He wanted to find Elena. He wanted to make it right.
Cross moved ahead. Mira at the rear, knife ready. Kai's legs felt heavy. The phone had fallen. The voicemail cut off.
"Hospital?" Cross asked without turning.
"St. Jude's," Kai said. His voice broke. "She said—" He stopped. He couldn't say more.
Mira's face went hard. "Could be bait."
"Could be real," Cross said. "We split. Mira with me. Kai, to the car. Fast."
Cross shoved a small radio into Kai's hand. "Keep it on. Tell us if you move."
Kai ran. The street was a smear of lights. Sirens braided in the distance. Cross drove like a man with a score.
"Why call the hospital?" Mira asked from the passenger seat.
"Watchers," Cross said. "They have eyes everywhere. Could be to steer you."
At Westbridge, traffic stopped. A bus had hit the rail. People shouted. The car stopped. They went on foot.
The riverwalk had a blue glow where the device had hit. Someone had left a mark on the pavement. The night tasted like petrol and old fear.
They reached St. Jude's. The lights were harsh. A nurse checked the intake and said, flat, "No Elena Rowan admitted tonight."
Kai felt the air leave him. "She called from here," he said. "She left a voicemail."
The nurse frowned, then left to search. Cross's fingers tightened on Kai's wrist. "Check the respiratory wards," he ordered. "Name and age."
They checked and got nothing. Each "no" cut like a small stone. Cross's radio crackled: "Rings are moving. Hale's calling favors."
Mira spat. "Victor wants to flush us out."
Cross's face hardened. "He wants you alone."
They left the hospital. Outside, a man in a red coat watched them and then was gone. Cross checked his phone. "The call pinged near the river," he said. "Someone wanted you to move there."
They went back toward the river. The blue eye device still sat where it had landed, small and blinking. A circle of men guarded it.
Victor's men smiled when they saw Kai. "Knew you'd come," one said.
"Where's she?" Kai demanded.
The man shrugged. "Maybe safe. Maybe not. Maybe we wanted you to show up."
Cross stepped forward. "Answer me. Where is Elena?"
The man only smiled. A drone buzzed low. The device glowed brighter. The men tightened.
Kai's radio crackled with static. He gripped it like a lifeline. The inheritance inside him hummed. It liked the crowd, the heat.
Then the river moved. A shape rose slow. Scales flashed like old coins. The water opened like a mouth. People backed up. The blue eye blinked.
Victor stepped out where he had been hidden. He laughed. "You wanted a show, boy? Watch."
The thing in the water lifted its head. It was not a boat. It was something not meant to be in a city's river. It looked at Kai like a question.
"Decide," Victor said. "Kill it or watch her drown."
Kai's stomach dropped. He saw Elena's face in his mind: small and coughing. He thought of the phone sliding into shadow. The thing in him pressed for a choice.
Cross moved to Mira's side. "If we charge, they'll set the device. It will pull more." His voice was flat. "We can't just run in."
Mira spat. "So we stand here and point?"
Victor's grin was wide. "You always did talk a lot. Action, Rowan."
Kai felt the voice inside rise—hungry and clean. The river wanted blood. The inheritance promised clarity. One strike, one thing to fix the chaos.
He stepped forward. The cold wind hit him. He could hear his own breath and it sounded too loud.
A shout from the street. Sirens closer. Someone fired a shot; the sound cracked. The creature below thrummed in the water, responsive to the noise.
Cross touched Kai's arm. "Anchor," he said. "Name yourself. Hold it."
Kai said his name. He said Elena's name. He felt the words like stones. The thing inside him faltered, like a storm catching a breath.
Victor laughed and lifted his phone. "Do it, boy."
Kai moved faster than he thought he could. His hands found a rock. The inheritance guided the motion—firm, steady. He threw.
The rock skipped on the water with a hard sound and struck the creature. It flinched. The blue eye on the device flashed a warning.
Then a second shadow moved. Not from the water. From the side—Victor's men dived toward the river with ropes. The drone dove low and a bright net unfurled, shooting like a spider web of light over the water. The device on the bank pulsed.
"Trap!" Mira yelled. She moved like a struck animal and cut a rope. Cross shouted and pushed Kai back.
But the blast hit the water. The creature's head twitched. The river answered with a roar that shook bones. People screamed. The net snapped and threw sparks.
Kai felt the inheritance surge, hot and eager. It pressed for release. It wanted him to strike, to end it, to show what he could do. He tasted something like victory and sour fear.
A hand caught his shoulder. It was not Cross. It was a ringed man with a scar, smiling like a clean wound. Victor's voice was behind them both: "You helped make this. Or you let it happen. Which is it?"
Kai twisted. The scarred man pulled out a slim device and pointed it at him. It looked like a remote. The blue eye on the bank blinked faster.
Cross shouted into the radio. "Pull back now!"
Kai's knee hit the wet stone. He could feel the river at his feet, the device blinking, the creature inching up and the crowd pushing back.
The scarred man's fingers tightened on the remote. He pressed something. The device on the bank flared. The river went quiet like a held breath. The creature went still, as if listening.
Then the river shifted. The creature turned its head toward Kai. Its mouth opened. It made a sound like tearing paper and a bright spray of water shot upward.
From the spray came a shape—not just water but a person wrapped in wet cloth, hair plastered, eyes wide and wild. Elena.
Kai's whole body stopped. For a single impossible second the world narrowed to one thin, bright thing: Elena's face gasping, eyes searching for him through the spray.
Someone screamed. Victor laughed, sharp and sold. "Now watch," he said.
The creature's neck arched. The water crushed the chest of the person within it. Elena's eyes met Kai's. She tried to speak but the sound was a bubble.
Kai didn't think. The inheritance filled him like a bell. He moved like a strike that had been waiting. He leapt into the cold water.