Chapter 10 · The Tunnel Has Teeth

"Blood trail's already cold." Calder kicked through the wreckage at the tunnel mouth. Freight crates lay split open, spell-ink still smoking on the concrete. "Your courier friend either ran or got dragged. Either way, we're late."

I didn't answer. The cuff on my wrist was warm now, almost hot, and the spell-binding inside it kept tugging me forward into the dark. Toward the rails.

"Mara." His voice dropped. "You feel that?"

"Yeah." I pulled my hand back, but the chain between us went taut and dragged him half a step closer. "The cuff wants something down there."

"The cuff doesn't want anything. It's a binding spell. It follows orders." He caught my wrist, turned it over. His claws were careful, but his grip wasn't. "Who set this thing?"

"Pike gave it to me. Standard relic restraint."

"Standard." He laughed, low and bitter. "Right. Standard restraints don't heat up near live rails. They don't pull."

I jerked my hand free. "You got a better theory?"

"Yeah. Someone coded this thing to track the ward-core. Or track whoever's carrying it." He looked past me, into the tunnel. "And if the courier came through here with a piece of it—"

"Then we follow."