Chapter 28 · Heron Betrayal

The cuffs are too tight.

Kai doesn't say it. Doesn't matter. Red Heron guards flank him on both sides, close enough he can smell the oil on their blades and the stale sweat under their collars. They've been marching him through corridors for ten minutes now, away from the gallery where Vera's hand had closed around his wrist, away from the crowd that had watched her choose.

He doesn't look at her. She walks three steps ahead, spine straight, face blank. The kind of blank that takes work.

Luca Han leads the procession. His boots click against stone like a countdown. Every so often he glances back, mouth curved just enough to let Kai know he's won something.

Kai focuses on breathing. On keeping his pulse steady. The mark under his ribs hums low and hungry. It wants a fight. Wants him to rip through the guards and sprint for the nearest exit.

But exits don't mean much when you don't know the city. When your face is on every watchlist and the woman who knows the back alleys just sold you out.

They stop in front of a reinforced door.