Chapter 12 · The Other Half of the Pact

"My mother didn't betray anyone." Mara's voice cut through the tunnel dust before the figure wearing Adrian's father's face could take another step. "So whoever you are, you don't get to use her name."

Adrian grabbed her wrist. Not hard. Just enough to feel her pulse hammering against his thumb. "Don't."

"Don't what?" She didn't pull away. "Don't ask why a dead man is walking around in a sewer telling me my family's clean?"

The man smiled. Same crooked tooth Adrian remembered from when he was eight. Same scar under the jaw. "I'm not your father, boy. Just borrowing the shape. Easier to talk when you're not shooting."

"Then talk fast." Adrian's other hand stayed on the brass casing in his coat. The black key inside it was still warm. Still humming.

"Your mother," the man said, looking at Mara, "took the fall for someone higher up. Someone who needed the Quinn name buried so deep nobody would dig."

Mara's wrist twisted under Adrian's grip. Not to escape. To anchor. "Who."

"That's the fun part." The man's grin widened. "You're standing next to him."

Adrian felt the air go thin. "What."

"Not you, keysmith. Your father. The real one.