Page 107 of Fractured Loyalties
“No?” He tilts his head. “Then why does her clinic flag three aliases from your black file?”
I don’t answer.
Because that’s bait.
And if I speak now, I’ll confirm more than I deny.
“She’s not just leverage,” he says, stepping closer. “She’s evidence.”
My hand flexes.
He notices.
“Don’t,” he warns. “There are eyes here. Not just ours. You draw, they drop you.”
I nod once. Like I believe him.
But I don’t.
Because if Vale trusted him that much, Toma wouldn’t be standing in front of me with fear stitched behind his teeth.
He’s expendable.
That means this is just another message.
“Where is he?” I ask.
Toma’s mouth twitches. “Far. But closer than you’d like.”
“Is he watching?”
“Always.”
I don’t look away when I say it: “Then tell him this—”
I move.
Blade out. Fast. Quiet.
Toma jerks back, but I’m faster. The knife slides up under his ribs before he can scream. I press him back against a nearby pillar, hand over his mouth.
“You want me to bleed?” I whisper. “Try harder.”
His eyes flare. The twitch in his hand becomes a spasm.
I twist the blade.
He gurgles something useless.
“Your mistake,” I say, “was thinking I left that life behind.”
I let him slide to the ground. Slow. Like I’m laying down a message of my own.
Then I walk.
No clean exit. No apology. Just silence, broken only by the click of my boots and the echo of a name I buried long ago being whispered like a curse.
Eidolon.
