Chapter 5 · My condition

His mouth tightened.

I pressed my bleeding thumb to the paper.

"My condition," I said, "is that you help me destroy Bram Calder's name, seat, and every record he stole from me."

Lucan watched the ink crawl toward my blood.

"That isn't a condition. That's revenge."

"Yes."

"And if Bram is innocent?"

"Then your vault can prove it."

"If the evidence clears him, you walk away."

"If the evidence clears him, I was wrong."

"You say that like it costs you nothing."

"It costs me my life."

That shut him up.

For the first time, his eyes moved over my face without contempt. His attention caught on the black lines under my skin, then the blood on my thumb.

"You are afraid," he said quietly.

I forced the words out before my throat closed around them.

"I am."

Lucan's hand lowered to his side.

I pushed my thumb harder into the paper. "I am more afraid of dying the same way twice.