“You bring pain, Kaelen. Pain has weight. I accept it.”

Kaelen hesitated. He knew the rule of the triple X. The first X was a trinket. The second X was a secret. The third X… was a piece of your soul.

She touched the locket. It turned to ash. And Kaelen felt something unhook inside his chest—a tiny, screaming absence where his longing for love had lived.

He took the money. He bought his upgrades. He fled Veridia.