“It means the Ledger Master is watching.” His grip on my arm tightens fractionally. “It means you matter more than a defaulted brother’s debt should warrant.”
I open my mouth to demand more—why, how, what is happening to me—and stop.
Because somewhere beneath the panic and the rage and the burning in my branded palm, I already know. The dreams I’ve dismissed as imagination. The way lies make my skin crawl. The instincts I’ve spent years tamping down because my mother told me to, because being ordinary was the only way to stay safe, because?—
Because attention is dangerous.
Because being seen can kill you.
Because Mom died when I was nine years old, and I never asked why.
My hand goes to the chain at my throat. My mother’s ring hangs there—the one thing I refused to pawn, no matter howdesperate things got. I curl my fingers around it and feel the metal warm against my palm.
Rathok follows the movement. His head cants slightly, and that strange expression deepens.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
The question lingers.
“Seven days.”
He nods. Once.
“Seven days to settlement. Or your soul is forfeit.”
The words terrify me. But they also do something else—light a spark in my chest that burns brighter than the fear.
Seven days.
Notimmediatecollection. Not a judgment already made. A window. A chance. Time to find Gror, to understand what happened, to figure out how to escape a trap I didn’t know existed until it closed around me.
“We need to talk.” The orc’s voice drops lower. “About your brother. About what you are. About—” He stops. Starts again. “Not here. The walls have ears in Gravebind, and these ears feed the wrong mouth.”
What Iam.
The words echo in my skull. What does he know? What has he guessed? What did the Ledger see when it changed its own terms to claim me?
I look up at the orc who should be dragging me before the Ledger Master, but instead is standing in my brother’s empty apartment, suggesting wetalk.
He still hasn’t let go of my arm.
I still haven’t pulled away.
The heat of his palm seeps through my sleeve, and I’m suddenly very aware of how close we’re standing. Of the way his chest rises and falls with each breath. Of his smoke-and-steel scent, and the way my pulse kicks harder when his fingers shift.
Stop it.I shove the awareness down.He’s an enforcer. A weapon. The enemy.
But he’s also the only one here. The only one offering answers. The only one who hasn’t tried to drag me off to die.
“Why?” The question comes out sharper than I intend. “Why not just take me? Why talk? Why give me anything that looks like a chance?”
Silence.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do with any of this.
But I know I’m not ready to die. I know Gror is out there somewhere, running scared, needing help only I can give. I know the sigil on my palm burns with a purpose I don’t understand, and the orc in front of me is either my best chance at survival or my final mistake.
“Fine.” I square my shoulders. Meet his gaze. Let him see the fire my mother spent years trying to hide. “Talk. Tell me what’s happening. Tell me about my brother’s debt, and what this—” I lift my marked arm, “—means, and why the Ledger Master cares about me at all.”
