Broken

They saw us

The hospital smelled like bleach and fear.

3:42 AM. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead.

Tayo was fine. Just a concussion and bruises.

Kade wasn’t.

“He lost a lot of blood,” the nurse said, eyes flicking to his temple. “But he’s stable. Don’t let him move.”

Kade was pale on the hospital bed, an IV in his arm. Gold light still faint under his skin, like embers dying out.

He opened his eyes when I sat down.

“You did good,” he whispered. Voice rough.

“You i***t,” I whispered back. “You jumped in front of a car for me.”

A ghost of a smile. “Told you to listen.”

Tayo was asleep in the chair next to us. The book was on my lap, wrapped in my jacket. It hadn’t pulsed since the crash.

For 10 minutes, it was quiet. Safe.

Then the lights flickered.

Once.

Twice.

All the monitors beeped at once.

Kade sat up instantly, ignoring the pain. “Ada. Give me the book.”

“What—”

“Now.”

I handed it to him. The second his fingers touched it, the air went cold.

From the hallway, footsteps. Slow. Deliberate.

Not nurse footsteps.

A voice, soft, amused:

“Hello, Seer.”

The door didn’t open. It _peeled_.

Wood splintered inward like something pushed it with air.

Three of them.

Tall. Faceless. Shadows stitched into the shape of people.

Reapers.

And in the middle, one wearing a long coat. He had a face. Human. Smiling.

His eyes were black. No whites.

“Hi Ada,” he said. Like we were old friends. “I’m Vey. We’ve been watching you.”

He looked at Kade. “And you. Traitor.”

Kade shoved me behind him and stood, wobbling. Gold light flared from his hands, weak.

“You touch them and I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” Vey laughed. “Bleed out?”

The other Reapers moved.

Not toward us. Toward Tayo.

My heart stopped. “NO!”

I grabbed the book from Kade. It burned.

The white light exploded out of me, not gold, not his. Mine.

The room shook. The Reapers staggered.

Vey’s smile dropped. “Oh. Interesting.”

He tilted his head. “You broke a vision. That’s not supposed to be possible.

The bosses are going to love you.”

Sirens outside. Real ones this time. Hospital security.

Vey sighed, like we were boring him. “We’ll be back, Ada. Next time, bring the book willingly. Or we take your brother instead.”

He snapped his fingers.

The three Reapers turned to smoke and slipped through the vents.

Gone.

The lights came back on.

Tayo jolted awake. “What happened?”

Kade collapsed back onto the bed, breathing hard. Blood seeping through his bandage.

He looked at me. Real fear in his gold eyes for the first time.

“They know where you live now,” he said.

“They know you can fight.”

“And they want the book.”

I looked down at my hands. They were shaking.

The book was warm. And on the cover, new words had appeared in silver:

*3 DAYS.*

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