Chapter 6 · The Bellmaker's Dirty Ledger

"Move."

Calder's claw closed around my wrist—the one without the cuff—and yanked me into the alley before I could argue. The main street behind us was already filling with smoke, thick and greasy, the kind that meant someone had just torched a evidence cache.

"That's not coincidence," I said.

"No." He didn't slow down. "That's cleanup."

The cuff buzzed against my skin, a low warning hum that meant we were putting distance between us and something it didn't like. Or someone. I dug my heels in.

"Cleanup means we're close. The bellmaker's shop is two blocks that way."

"The bellmaker's shop is ash by now." Calder's wings flared, just enough to block the mouth of the alley. "You want the ledger? Finn has it."

I stared at him. "Finn sold me this job. He didn't mention having the one thing that could actually finish it."

"Because he's not stupid." Calder's eye—the good one, the one that wasn't half-shuttered by scar tissue—locked on mine. "He knew you'd go after it. He knew they'd go after you."

"They."

"The people who paid me to take the core in the first place." His voice dropped.