Chapter 40. Ash and Iron

Engines clicked as they cooled, the last echoes of the fight bleeding into morning. Riders leaned against twisted fenders and tire stacks, some still bleeding, others so still they might’ve been part of the scrap. A busted radio crackled faintly from one of the sheds, white noise drowning in the quiet.

Riven sat on the steps of a dented trailer, her knees drawn up, palms hidden in the folds of her jeans. Her hands pulsed like warnings she couldn’t shut out. The bundle of scorched papers rested on the floorboards beside her boot, the edges still curling where fire had bitten.

Still as steel. Not even breath broke the moment.

Axel lowered himself onto the step without a word. The wood sagged under the weight of his jacket, stiff with dried blood. His arm hung stiff against his side, the bandage leaking through, but he didn’t touch it. He sat forward, elbows braced on his knees, staring past the fence like the smoke rising from Hale’s house had followed them here.