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The woman glared, hair spilling into her eyes as Taly stepped forward and placed the box on the counter before turning for the door.

“We should file a report. About the man in the alley.” She grabbed Skye’s hand and didn’t look back.

“Not so fast,” the woman growled.

“Keep walking,” Taly hissed, not that Skye needed to be told.

“First rule of running a mercantile,” the woman said. “Always double-check a time mage’s pockets.”

Skye’s blood turned to ice.

“Allof them.”

There was a softplunkas something dropped. Then three more in quick succession.

Taly gasped and fell to her knees, feathery skirts billowing as she scrambled to gather the riftway keys as they tumbled from their hidden pocket dimension.

But it was futile. They flew across the room, shimmering as they spiraled toward the box the woman held aloft.

One by one, they slotted back into the velvet.

The woman smirked. “Dead crystal,” she said with smug satisfaction, “always knows its master.”

Then a sharp, wet cough tore through her. She clutched the counter for support, her skin rippling as dark marks bloomed across her hands and wrists, spreading upward.

The woman’s breathing turned ragged. She glanced down at her hands. “Spent already?” she panted. “Blasted halfbreeds.”

The next time her head lifted, black lines fractured across her face, branching like cracks in glass. More surfaced by the second, rising from beneath her skin as if dragged.

That’s not normal,Taly whispered into his thoughts.

What do you mean?Skye shot back.

The marks. That’s not the Curse. It’s spreading too fast.

Something fell then—a layer of pretense.

“And here we are again, I see.” The rough northern accent gave way to a smoother cadence, steeped with subtle old-world elegance. “You know, time mage… I’m beginning to remember just how annoying your kind can be.”

Through the bond, Skye felt it—the realization. Cold and absolute. His heart stalled in his chest as Taly tilted her head, saying ever so softly…

“Hello, Bill.”

Chapter 60

It was the eyes that gave him away.

Taly didn’t know the woman, had never seen her before in her life. But the eyes—vacant, hollow, with the gleam of cruelty just beneath the surface, watching her from the inside out.

It was him.

Her spine went rigid. Not from panic—though it knocked once, hard—but from the heat rising in its place. A slow, coiling rage that was done with fear, done with being hunted, and ready to find its mark.

“So, is this it then? Is this you?” She tilted her head. “Forgive me if I don’t cower. The nightgown is a… choice.”

Thin, pale lips tightened into a smile. “This body may be... inelegant, but it is a tool, nothing more.”

“Ah, so we’re still taking the coward’s way out,” Taly drawled. “Still hiding behind false faces?”