Chapter 13 · Job Four: The Drowned Name

"You're not touching that ledger."

Iris shoved past me before I could answer, phone already lit up in her hand. The warehouse stank like dead fish and rust. Water dripped somewhere in the dark, slow and deliberate, each drop hitting the concrete like a countdown.

"Too late," I said. "Voss already sent the file."

"Then we move fast." She stopped at the edge of the loading bay. Black water stretched out below us, still as glass. No current. No reflection. Just black. "The name's down there. Ghost's holding it hostage in the ledger. You go in, you pull it out, we're done."

"That easy?"

"No."

I stepped beside her. The water didn't smell like water. It smelled like ink and old blood. "What happens if I go in?"

"The ghost tries to drown you."

"And if it succeeds?"

Iris turned. Her face was too close, her breath shallow. The curse mark on her collarbone still looked raw from when that translucent face had torn through it an hour ago. "Then you wake up tomorrow with a new power and we do this again."

"What if the ghost writes my name in the ledger before I drown?"

She didn't answer.

"Iris."