Chapter 9 · The Name They Crossed Out

Alto shoved the paper into Lira's hands. "Read it again."

She didn't look down. She'd already read it twice. Her face had gone pale the first time, then something harder had settled in.

"I can't change what my father did," she said.

He wanted to put his fist through the wall. Wanted to grab her by the throat and ask how many names were on that list before they crossed them all out and wrote *Arlen Kash* at the top. But Kael was watching from the cell door, and Shana's guards were three corridors away, and this girl was the only one in the compound who could get them past the gate without a blood price.

So he didn't.

"Your father signed the kill order for my people," Alto said. His voice came out flat. "Then he put a price on my head. My actual head. The man I used to be."

Lira's jaw tightened. "I know."

"Do you?" He stepped closer. She didn't back up. "Six years ago, your dad decided the Ashmar were too dangerous to live. Bloodcurse contamination, right? That's what the federations told everyone. But the real reason's in that paper. We could hear the dead.