Chapter 9 · The Name in the Ledger

"Don't touch the clerk." Cedric's hand closed around my wrist before I could reach for the ledger.

His fingers were warm. Too warm against the blood oath burned into my skin.

The clerk flinched behind the table, clutching the book to his chest. He was thin, gray-haired, and shaking so hard his keys rattled against his belt. Two Blackgrit officers stood on either side of him with their hands on their swords.

I looked at Cedric. "I was going to take the book. Not his throat."

"You said that last time."

"Last time, I took a knife."

His thumb pressed into the inside of my wrist. Not enough to hurt. Just enough to remind me that he could stop me whenever he wanted.

The clerk swallowed. "Commander, she shouldn't be here."

"She goes where I go," Cedric said.

That earned me a sharp look from the older officer. Captain Rusk. He had hated me since the first day I entered the fortress, mostly because Cedric had ordered him not to chain me.

"She's a suspected infiltrator," Rusk said. "Not your aide."

Cedric didn't look at him. "And you're a captain who lost three wagons of sealed records under your watch.