Chapter 11 · Dealer's First Blood

"Touch him and I drop you."

Lilith's barrel was grinding into the back of my skull so hard my teeth clicked.

"Lilith. Hey. Gun off," I said, hands up, palms out. "That's not helping."

"Don't you tell me what's helping!" she snapped. Her voice was shaking. Not scared-shaking. Pissed-shaking. "You said you were hunting contract-breakers. You didn't say the breaker was a kid, Kane!"

The kid couldn't have been more than fourteen. Skinny, neon-dyed hair, knees pulled to his chest behind the flipped table. A cheap Void card was torn half in his fist, sparking black at the edges like it was bleeding smoke.

And the air around him was wrong. Cold. Hungry.

Silas stepped out of the dark like he'd always been there. Long coat, hands in pockets, that smile that never reached his eyes.

"Dealer," he said, soft. "You're late on your payment. And this one? He's defaulting too."

"He's a kid," I said.

"He signed," Silas said. "Age is irrelevant. Debt is debt."

Lilith didn't move the gun. "Who the hell is he?"

"My boss," I said. "My landlord. My executioner. Pick one."

Silas looked at her, then at me, amused. "She doesn't know, does she?