Chapter 20 · Dead Voices in the House

The scream came from upstairs.

Alto didn't wait. He hit the stairs three at a time, boots slipping on marble that cost more than ten slave lives. Kael's breath rasped behind him, heavier, slower. The old lieutenant wasn't built for sprinting anymore.

"Alto, wait—"

He didn't.

The governor's house sprawled like a maze designed by someone who wanted servants lost. Hallways doubled back. Doors led to closets pretending to be rooms. Alto followed the sound—no, not sound anymore. The feeling. The pull in his gut that said Lira was in trouble and he was the only one stupid enough to care.

"You don't even know where you're going," Kael hissed, catching up at the landing.

Alto stopped. Listened.

Nothing.

No second scream. No footsteps. No voices.

Just the hum of expensive silence that rich people paid for.

"There." Alto pointed at a door carved with desert roses. Expensive. Locked.

Kael tried the handle. "Bolted from inside."

"So we go through it."

"The whole house'll hear."

"Then they'll hear." Alto stepped back, measured the distance. Arlen's instincts mapped the door's weak points before Alto's eyes finished focusing. Old wood. Decorative hinges.