Chapter 39 · He knows your name

She felt Kael's attention snap toward her.

"He knows your name," Mira whispered.

"He's been hunting me for months."

"No," Kael said. "He knows your name in the old registry."

Sera looked at him. "You said the registry was destroyed."

"I said I destroyed what I could reach."

"That isn't the same thing."

"No. It isn't."

Oren's boots stopped on the other side of the corridor.

"Open the door, Sera," Oren called. "Or I'll remove Mira's memories one block at a time."

Mira's fingers went still on the reader.

Sera lifted her knife. "You touch her mind and I'll carve yours out through your teeth."

"You still talk like the program taught you."

The words struck harder than the threat.

Kael caught her shoulder. "Don't listen to him."

She knocked his hand away. "Did it teach me that too?"

"Sera—"

"Did you know him before the execution? Before the shackle? Before you found me in that prison truck?"

Kael's silence answered too fast.

Oren laughed on the other side of the door. "Ask your ruler what he did with the murder file. Ask him why your first kill is missing from every record."

Sera turned on Kael. "What murder file?"