Chapter 29 · Rust and Relic - Chapter 29: The Gray Market Bites Back

"You're bleeding on my floor."

Greta didn't look up from the ledger spread across her table. Candle smoke curled between us in the low-roofed shack she called her archive. Outside, the gray market hummed with voices haggling over stolen grain and rusted weapons.

"Your floor's seen worse," Liv said. She kept one hand on her blade, the other pressed to the gash across her ribs. Blood seeped through her fingers. "We need that ledger before Vald's hunters get here."

"They're already here." Greta flipped a page without looking at either of us. "Three of them. Watching the east entrance since dawn."

I moved to the window. The shutter was cracked just enough to see the crowd below. "Which three?"

"The ones with the bone charms and the dead eyes." Greta's finger traced a column of numbers. "Bonewalkers don't blink much. Makes them easy to spot."

"How long do we have?" Liv asked.

"Depends." Greta finally looked up. Her gray eyes were flat. "How much noise are you planning to make?"

"None," I said. "We get the ledger, we leave through the back, we're gone before they know we were here."

"That's what the last three said." Greta tapped the ledger.