Chapter 22 · Mom's Ledger

Marcus showed up at dawn with a duffel bag and a smile I wanted to punch off his face.

"Council's busy in Prague," he said, dropping the bag on my kitchen table like it was groceries. "Eli's alone. Window's open for maybe forty-eight hours."

Karl didn't move from where he stood by the window. He'd been there all night. I could still feel the pull between us, that third bloodline humming under my skin like a live wire.

"You want us to move now," I said.

Marcus unzipped the bag. Fake IDs. Keycard. Floor plan. "I want you to decide if you're serious. Because if we're doing this, we do it before the summit ends and Eli flies back surrounded by guards."

I looked at Karl. His face was blank, but I could feel the tension through the bond. Not fear. Rage. The kind that had been sitting in his chest for years.

"What's the play?" I asked.

Marcus pulled out a tablet, tapped it twice. Security footage. Eli's private office, top floor of some glass tower downtown. "He meets with blood source brokers every Thursday. Off the books. No witnesses, no recordings allowed inside the room.