Chapter 26 · Moonclaim - Chapter 26: What Victor Left Behind

Leon didn't sleep.

He sat on the edge of the lab cot with the data chip between his fingers, turning it over and over like a coin. The metal was still warm from Ivy's pocket. She'd kept it close. He wondered how long she'd been carrying it. Weeks, maybe. Months. All that time she'd been standing next to him in this basement, pipetting serum samples, cleaning equipment, pretending she didn't have a dead man's confession pressed against her ribs.

He should've burned it the second she handed it over.

But he didn't.

The monitor on the workbench was still on. The last file Victor Gray had recorded was queued up, thumbnail frozen on his father's face. Leon hadn't clicked play yet. He'd watched the first three clips twice.

They were bad enough. Victor's voice had been steady, methodical, like he was dictating lab notes instead of dismantling ten years of Leon's certainty. The hunter elder had walked through the massacre step by step. Who was where. Who gave the order. Who set the fire.

It wasn't Victor.

Leon's jaw hurt. He realized he'd been clenching it for the past hour.

He set the chip down on the bench and stood.