Chapter 7 · The Name on the Last Page

"Put the gun down, Nolan!" I shoved myself between him and Soren, but the barrel stayed fixed on Soren's chest.

The copy ledger burned on the table behind us. Black light crawled through its stitched spine, spreading across the cover like cracks in glass.

Nolan's hand shook. His eyes didn't.

"Move, Mara."

"No."

"He killed them."

Soren stood three feet away, one hand pressed to his bleeding wrist. The broken seal around his skin leaked dark red drops onto the floor. His face had gone pale, but his voice stayed flat.

"If I killed your parents, boy, you wouldn't be holding a gun. You'd be holding proof."

Nolan's finger tightened around the trigger. "You bought the debt. You sent the collectors. You watched our house burn."

"I bought a bad contract after your parents were already dead."

"Liar!"

The word cracked through the room.

A shape peeled itself off the wall behind Nolan.

It had no face. Just a mouth full of paper teeth and a strip of red ink running where its eyes should have been.

"Nolan," I said, keeping my gaze on the thing, "don't turn around."

"What?"

"Don't move.