Chapter 26 · The Ledger Wants a Body

The key was still warm.

Lucan stared at the thing in his palm. Gray bone, thin as a needle, carved with the triple-loop Vey seal. Ivy's spit was still drying on it. The ward behind him was quiet now, just the hum of the boundary lamps and the shuffle of healers trying to pretend they hadn't just watched a coma patient cough up a relic and call him the answer.

He closed his fist. The bone bit into his skin.

She'd said his name. Not Lucan. Noah.

That meant someone knew. Someone had cracked her open and threaded this thing inside her like bait on a line, and now they were waiting to see what he'd do with it.

He turned. Cassian was across the room, hands still glowing faint green as he sealed the last fractured ward stone back into the wall. The man's jaw was tight, shoulders too stiff. He'd heard it too.

"Don't," Lucan said.

Cassian didn't look up. "Don't what."

"Don't ask."

"Wasn't going to." He pressed the stone flush and the light snuffed out. When he finally turned, his face was blank in that way that meant he was thinking too hard. "But you're leaving."