The unfinished sentence seemed to breathe.
No one moved.
Sarya stared at the final page while the ink shimmered across the paper, refusing to dry. Every instinct urged her to keep reading, yet there was nothing else to read. The warning simply ended, as though the hand that had written it had been interrupted at the most important moment.
Grace's expression had changed completely.
Until now, she had been composed. Sad, certainly, and burdened by memories no one else shared, but never uncertain. For the first time since arriving at the Balance Branch, genuine alarm appeared in her eyes.
She stepped forward.
"Close it."
Sarya looked up.
"Why?"
"Because it isn't finished."
The woman standing in the doorway smiled gently.
"It was never supposed to be."
The atmosphere inside Archive Three shifted.
