Chapter 13 · The Next Host

"You're still breathing," Kane said. "That means the transfer worked."

I couldn't answer. The ledger was still burning through my chest, every line rewriting itself in real time. Numbers I'd never seen before crawled up my ribs like they were carving themselves into bone.

Mara stepped between us. "Back off."

"Or what?" Kane didn't move. "You'll audit me? You already tried that. Took you three years to get close, and all you found was the outer shell. The real engine's been inside him for the last forty seconds."

I forced myself upright. The concrete scraped my palms, cold and gritty. "What the hell did you do to me?"

"I handed you the keys." Kane's smile didn't reach his eyes. "You wanted to know who sold you out on that rooftop? You did. The moment you took the job, you signed the transfer contract. Every favor you called in, every name you pulled from the ledger, you were feeding it. Building the bridge. And now it's yours."

Mara's gun hand twitched. "He didn't agree to host."

"He agreed the second he opened the book." Kane tilted his head, and I saw the edge of a scar running down his jaw. Old.