Chapter 6 · The Old Bookkeeper

"You owe me for your first death."

Ephraim's voice crackled through the speaker. I held the phone between us so Mara could hear.

"That's a hell of an opening line," I said.

"You want the bookkeeper who tracks the real ledgers in this city, you come to me. You want him alive, you come right now."

Mara leaned in, close enough I could smell gunpowder still clinging to her jacket. "Where?"

"Old coin exchange under Ashford. Third basement. Bring the black ledger or don't bother."

The line went dead.

"Trap," Mara said.

"Obviously."

"You're going anyway."

"Obviously."

She pulled back, eyes sharp. "The collectors know Ephraim's the only one who can read the old city debt records. They grab him, they can trace every account you just cracked open."

"So we get there first."

"With what? Good intentions and your magic book?"

I pushed off the wall. "You got a better play?"

She didn't answer. That was answer enough.

The coin exchange was a twenty-minute walk if you took the street. We took the old service tunnels, the ones that used to run between bank vaults back when Cinderfall thought it could be something better.