Ekko had been waiting far longer than he'd planned. Where was she?

He flipped his pocket watch into his palm, the locket snapping open with a soft click. Forty minutes late. He let out a low huff, jaw tight, and leaned back against the doorframe, eyes narrowed as they traced the rain sliding down the tall, fractured windows.

He wouldn't be so furious if he hadn't known the reason she was late had Jinx’s fingerprints all over it—Jinx and that bastard Silco.

She had always been loyal to Powder—long before she became the ticking time bomb called Jinx. Childhood promises, unshakable bonds… it made Ekko sick. Couldn’t she see Powder was gone? Couldn’t she see that what was left was a ghost puppeted by a drug-addled maniac set on burning the Lanes to ash?

It was madness. All of it. But maybe he was just as far gone. Maybe the real madness was that he kept showing up. Kept waiting for her. Kept hoping she'd choose him over the ruins.

A floorboard creaked behind him. His head snapped around.