Chapter 27 · The Name Beneath the War

"You're bleeding on the map."

I looked down. Blood from my knuckles smeared across the parchment spread over Mira's table. The escape shaft had scraped me raw on the way down, and I hadn't bothered cleaning up after Kael dumped me in this room and disappeared back toward the fighting.

"Good." I pressed my palm flat, let the stain spread. "Maybe it'll make the damn thing more honest."

Mira stood across from me, arms folded, face unreadable. The intel room was a concrete box two levels below the Keep's main floor, lit by a single rune-lamp that buzzed like a dying fly. No windows. One door. She'd locked it behind me.

"You're angry," she said.

"I'm alive." I shoved the map aside. "That's what pisses me off. Kael chose me over his gate. His people are dying up there right now because he carried me out instead of holding the line."

"He made the right call."

"For who?"

Mira didn't answer. She moved to the corner, pulled a steel case off the shelf, and set it between us. Her fingers hesitated on the latch.

"What's that?"

"The reason you keep dying," she said.