Chapter 10 · Blood Ties & Bone Lies

"Put the jar down, Kael." Julian caught his wrist before the glass hit the table.

Kael's fingers tightened around it. "Get your hand off me."

"Not until you tell me why you broke into my archive."

"Your guards let me in. Blame your guards."

Julian twisted his wrist just enough to make the bones complain. The jar stayed between them, trapped in Kael's grip. Inside, the pale shard pulsed with a weak gold light.

The same light that had crawled through the dead patient's teeth.

The same light Kael had seen in his sister's old medical file.

His sister's name had been written on the tag.

Not a guess. Not a similar mark. The name was there, inked beneath a line that read Donor.

Julian's birth mother.

Still alive.

"You found the label," Julian said.

Kael stopped fighting for half a second. "So you can read. That's useful."

Julian's jaw flexed. His hand stayed locked around Kael's wrist. "You were told not to touch anything in this room."

"I was told a lot of things by the man who kidnapped me, chained me to a surgical table, and threatened to have my sister's grave dug up.