Chapter 21 · The Blood File

"Choose."

Asher's voice came through the speaker cold and clear. On the left screen, Leah was zip-tied to a chair in some concrete room, duct tape across her mouth, eyes wide. On the right screen, a single manila folder sat on a steel table under fluorescent light.

"The file has everything," Asher said. "The massacre. The frame-up. The names. Every council member who signed off on it fifteen years ago. Or I can give you the address where your little clerk is bleeding out. You get one."

Sienna's hand was already on the desk, white-knuckled. Kael stood three feet behind her, close enough that she could feel the heat rolling off him, the bond pulling tight like a wire about to snap.

"Don't," Kael said quietly. "He's bluffing."

"Am I?" Asher's laugh crackled through the static. "Judge Hale, you've got sixty seconds. The file walks out the door in one minute, and so does the girl's oxygen supply. Tick tock."

Leah was shaking her head, trying to scream through the tape. Sienna could see the tears tracking down her face, the way her wrists were already raw from pulling at the zip ties.

"Sienna.