Chapter 8 · Seven Days Left

Evira didn't sleep.

She sat on the cot in her bunk room staring at the hunter's pass on her lap. The blood message had faded hours ago but she could still see it burned into the cheap laminated card. Felix lives. Seven days.

Six now. The clock on the wall said it was past midnight.

Her arm throbbed where she'd cut it. Marcus had wrapped it himself after the exam hall cleared out, his hands quick and impersonal, like he was field-dressing a wound on any other rookie. He hadn't said much. Just told her to keep it clean and report to the archive room at dawn.

She flexed her fingers. The bandage pulled tight.

Someone wanted her blood. Someone knew what it could do. And they had Felix.

She stood and shoved the pass into her pocket. Sitting here wasn't going to fix anything. If Marcus had answers, she needed them now. Six days wasn't enough time to play along with his cold case while her brother was in a cage somewhere bleeding out his countdown.

The guild halls were empty this time of night. Her boots echoed on stone.