Chapter 58. Chase Through the Veins

Kenzie’s laughter split the chase in two, a whip crack over the engine roar—chain snaking as she rode feral at the tail of the pack.

“Push harder, ghost girl! You want your rat, you better ride like hell!”

The words rang, venom-mirth, and Riven’s foot twitched instinctively to the pedal, her battered lungs spasming with each inhale of smoke-stained air. She hunched low, slicing the wind, skimming a rusted dumpster with an inch to spare. The world was a smear of alley grit, burning nerves, and the blue-white flash of panic.

Her chest burned, every inhale raw against ribs that felt too thin to contain her frantic heart, but the ache pushed her. Forward, always forward—through the stink of frying oil and rotting trash, past the reek of last week’s rain, pooled stagnant in every pothole. Her gloves, slippery with sweat and glue, clenched the throttle with knuckle-cracking force. The city rushed by, a gauntlet of shattered glass and graffiti-covered brick, all of it c