We finish the tour with empty smiles and false words.
Once outside, Olivia exhales. “Holy crap. That place was a mausoleum.”
“He is using the spear.”
Her head snaps toward me. “What?”
“Part of its power… it is embedded beneath his dwelling. That ‘reactor’ is no machine. It draws from sacred light. My light.”
Her eyes widen. “But how?”
I shake my head. “I do not know. But it is the spear’s echo. Twisted. Poisoned. And growing.”
We walk in silence for a moment before I speak again.
“I must retrieve it. At once.”
“Kursk—”
“I will tear the house down. Rip his reactor from the earth and bury him beneath it.”
“Kursk,stop.”
I turn to her, eyes glowing. She stands firm.
“You can’t just break into his basement and decapitate the guy. Calvin’s got money, lawyers, police on speed dial. He’s the kind of guy who builds in loopholes before he lays down concrete.”
I snarl. “Then I will shatter his law.”
“And replace it with what? Trial by spear? Trial by combat?”
“…Yes.”
She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Gods help me, that wasn’t a joke, was it?”
“I do not joke when sacred weapons are defiled.”
She paces a bit, then stops. “Okay. Look. We’ll get it back. I promise. But we need a plan. And allies.”
I pause. “You trust these… Booger and Burnout?”
“About as far as I can throw them. Which is not far. But they’re loyal, dumb, and surprisingly resourceful.”
“I’ve had worse warbands.”
She grins. “Then it’s settled. Tonight, we gather.”
The sun sinks behind Calvin’s cold empire.
The spear hums in my hand like it remembers how to kill.
And I remember how to lead.
CHAPTER 9
OLIVIA
There are bad days. And then there’s sneaking a seven-foot orc into a public library after dark while bribing teenage delinquents with Hot Pockets and trying not to trigger ancient, potentially apocalyptic magic wards. Yeah. Top ten, easily.
