Chapter 166

• Eric POV
• The sky was a muddled color of gray and gold when I stepped out of the car. Traffic near Kailuxe was already swelling with the usual late afternoon chaos. I checked my watch again—five minutes late. Malik wouldn’t shut up about punctuality, so I expected a barrage of texts, but my phone stayed silent.
• I tucked it into my coat pocket and started toward the entrance of the glass-front restaurant, trying not to breathe in the smoke curling off a food vendor’s stall nearby. The scent of spice and grilled meat normally made my stomach growl, but now it stirred nothing. My gut had been off for days. Anxiety, probably. Or guilt. Hard to tell these days—they felt the same in my body.