Chapter 20 · Eclipse Blade

The restraints hit the floor like dead snakes.

I'm standing before I decide to stand. The glow under my skin isn't fading—it's spreading, crawling up my arms in lines that look like veins made of moonlight. Every chain in the building is singing in my head. I can feel them. The cuffs on the security guard three floors down. The lock on the stairwell door. The steel cable holding the elevator.

All of it wants to break.

"Ivy." Grayson's voice cuts through the noise. He hasn't moved from behind his desk. "You need to calm down."

"Calm down?" I turn on him. The glow flares brighter. "You just told me my mother knew. She knew someone was coming and you couldn't help her. And then you—" My throat closes. "You think Silas killed them."

"I don't think. I know." Grayson's jaw tightens. "He was in Boston that week. He signed the incident report himself. Closed the case in forty-eight hours. No investigation. No witnesses."

The contract mark on my wrist is burning. Not the warning burn—the other kind. The kind that says Silas is close.

"Rourke." Grayson doesn't look away from me. "If she moves, put her down.