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The hound's body hit the ground three feet away. Still twitching. Marcus hadn't moved his blade from her throat.
"Evira," he said again.
She couldn't breathe. Not because of the steel. Because he knew. He'd known her real name before she'd ever walked into the guild hall.
"Don't." Her voice came out raw. "Don't say it again."
"Why not?" Marcus tilted his head. Blood spatter crossed his jaw. He didn't blink. "It's your name."
The rift was closing behind them. She could feel it collapsing, the air pressure shifting, her ears popping. The alley was too quiet now. Just her heartbeat and the hound's last kicks.
"You going to kill me?" she asked.
Marcus pulled the blade back. Wiped it on his coat. "If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't have stepped in."
She pushed herself off the wall. Her legs shook. The cut on her palm was still bleeding, slow and steady. She pressed it against her jacket. "Then what do you want?"
"Same thing you do." He sheathed the blade. "Answers."
"I don't—"
"Don't lie." His voice went flat. "You're here for your brother. Felix Kern. Twelve years old. Taken six weeks ago. Ransom demand came in at forty thousand marks."
Her stomach dropped. "How do you—"
"I'm an investigator. I investigate." Marcus stepped over the hound. It had stopped moving. "You faked your ID, lied on your intake form, and walked into the most dangerous job in the city because you need the bounty. That about right?"
Evira didn't answer. Couldn't.
"You think they'll pay you if they find out you're a woman?" Marcus asked. "You think they'll let you walk out of the guild hall? Or do you think Vivian Ash will have you disappeared before you hit the street?"
Vivian. Third-seat council. She'd signed Evira's contract.
"You're trying to scare me," Evira said.
Marcus laughed. It was a cold sound. "You should already be scared. You ripped a rift with your blood. Do you even know what that means?"
She didn't. But she wasn't going to tell him that.
Marcus pulled something from his coat. A photograph. Old. The edges were soft, the colors faded. He held it out.
Evira didn't take it. "What is that?"
"Look at it."
She looked.
A woman. Maybe mid-twenties. Dark hair pulled back, standing in front of the guild hall. She wore the same gray field coat Evira had seen in the archive photos. Hunter gear. Thirty years out of date. The woman wasn't smiling. She was staring straight at the camera. Her face was narrow. Sharp jaw. High cheekbones.
And her eyes.
Evira's chest went tight.
"Who is she?" Her voice sounded far away.
Marcus took the photo back. Slid it into his coat. "Her name was Kara Vex. She was my partner. She vanished thirty years ago on a hunt outside the city. No body. No witnesses. No rift signature. Just gone."
Evira swallowed. "Why are you showing me this?"
"Because you have her eyes," Marcus said. "And her blood."
The alley spun. Evira put a hand on the wall. "That's not—"
"I've been tracking bloodline records for three decades." Marcus didn't move closer. He just watched her. "Kara Vex had no living family. No children on record. But six months after she disappeared, a baby girl was registered in the southern district. No father listed. Mother's name redacted. The midwife's signature was forged."
Evira's hand was still bleeding. She felt the warmth of it against her palm. "You think I'm—"
"I think Kara didn't die," Marcus said. "I think she ran. And I think she had a daughter."
"That's insane."
"Is it?" Marcus gestured at the rift. It was almost closed now. Just a thin line of distortion in the air. "You opened that with a few drops of blood. Kara could do the same thing. It's not a skill you learn. It's in the blood. Genetic. Rare as hell. And the guild has been looking for it for thirty years."
Evira's pulse hammered in her ears. "Why?"
"Because rifts are power," Marcus said. "And power is control. Vivian Ash has been funding illegal summoning research since before you were born. She wants an army. And she needs summoners to build it."
The hound. The rift. The way Vivian had looked at her in the contract room.
"She knows," Evira said.
Marcus nodded. "She's known since your blood test. You think they run those for disease screening? They're looking for markers. You lit up every scanner in the building."
Evira's legs almost gave out. She locked her knees. "Then why let me in?"
"Because she wants to see what you can do," Marcus said. "And because you're more useful inside than out. Easier to control. Easier to contain."
"I have to get Felix." Evira pushed off the wall. "I don't care about your partner. I don't care about Vivian. I just need the money."
Marcus caught her arm. Not hard. Just enough to stop her. "You won't make it to the ransom deadline. Vivian will move on you before then. She's patient, but she's not stupid. You've already shown her what you can do. Now she just needs you isolated."
Evira yanked her arm free. "Then what am I supposed to do?"
"Work with me," Marcus said.
She stared at him. "You're serious."
"I need to know what happened to Kara," Marcus said. "You need to get your brother back. Vivian is the connection. She was on the council when Kara vanished. She signed off on the case closure. And she's the one breeding summoners now."
"You think she took Kara."
"I think Vivian knows where Kara is," Marcus said. "And I think your blood is the key to finding out. You help me, I help you. I can get you access to the guild archives. The old case files. The research logs. And I can keep Vivian off your back long enough for you to earn the ransom."
Evira's hand throbbed. The cut was still open. She looked at it. The blood was darker than it should be. Almost black in the dim light.
"And if I say no?" she asked.
Marcus didn't smile. "Then you're on your own. And Vivian will have you in a cage before the week is out."
The rift closed. The air settled. The alley was just an alley again. Brick and trash and the smell of wet stone.
Evira looked at Marcus. At the blood on his coat. At the blade on his hip. He was a threat. He was also the only person who'd told her the truth since she walked into the guild.
"Fine," she said. "But Felix comes first. Whatever you need from me, it doesn't touch him."
Marcus nodded. "Deal."
He turned and walked toward the mouth of the alley. Evira followed. Her legs were steadier now. The cut on her palm had stopped bleeding. She flexed her fingers. The skin was already closing. Faster than it should.
She didn't mention it.
Marcus stopped at the corner. Looked back. "One more thing."
"What?"
"Don't bleed in front of anyone else," he said. "Not until we know what Vivian is planning."
Evira nodded.
Marcus left.
She stood there for a long time. Staring at the place where the rift had been. At the hound's body. At her hand.
The woman in the photograph had her eyes.
---
Fifteen blocks away, Vivian Ash sat in her office on the third floor of the guild hall. The lights were off. The city glow came through the window, cold and blue. She had a tablet in her lap. The footage was grainy, but clear enough.
The alley. The rift. The girl's blood hitting the ground.
Vivian replayed it three times. Then she tapped the screen and opened a message channel.
"Bring me the bloodline," she said. "Breathing."
The reply came back in seconds.
*Confirmed.*
Vivian set the tablet down. Poured herself a glass of whiskey. The girl had Kara's eyes. Kara's blood. And if the old records were right, Kara's gift.
Thirty years. She'd waited thirty years.
Vivian drank. The whiskey burned. She smiled.
"Welcome home," she said to the empty room.