Chapter 30 · The Inspector's Heart

The second heartbeat struck again.

Lio felt it behind her ribs, beneath the frantic rhythm of her own pulse. It did not beat with the buried beast below the tower. That heartbeat was enormous, slow enough to bend the air around it. This one was close. Intimate. It knocked against her bones as if something inside her had lifted its head.

Oro went silent for half a breath.

Then the dragon’s voice slammed through her mind.

Run.

The command carried none of its usual arrogance. No ancient contempt. No amused impatience. Only fear.

Lio tightened her grip around the evidence crystal. Its blue light trembled across her fingers, illuminating the ruined chamber—the collapsed ribs of Tower Nine, the walls painted with burning memories, the phantom version of herself still standing in the fire.

The construct had vanished when Lio carried it out of the flames. Not destroyed. Not forgiven. Simply released from the place where the Council had stitched her last memories together and called the result a witness.

But its final accusation remained.

Cael Rook was the one who opened the door.

The inspector stood three paces away, half turned toward the cracked floor.