Page 69 of Zayrik

“Shit,” he muttered.

“Finally, someone with the right reaction,” I said dryly. But underneath my tone was relief. Because this man understood. Knew exactly what kind of monster we were dealing with.

“You should’ve come to me sooner, kid.” There was history in those words. Regret. The kind of care that made my protective instincts stir, even as I recognized it as genuine.

“Didn’t plan on living long enough to need the backup.” Her voice was steady, but I felt the truth in it like a physical blow. Felt what it meant, that before me, before us, she’d been ready to die fighting him.

Never again,something in me growled. Protecting her wasn’t a matter of duty. It had everything to do with the way my soul recognized hers.

“How bad is it?” Cal asked, but his eyes said he already knew. Already understood that this wasn’t just another close call.

She didn’t answer with words.

Didn’t need to.

Her fingers slipped into her jacket and pulled out the small, unassuming crystal she hadn’t let go of since this began. The one I’d watched her guard like it was worth more than her life.

I’d seen her sleep with it. Eat with it. Move with it like it was part of her. Like it was both salvation and damnation wrapped in tech and crystal.

She stepped forward and held it in her hand, but she didn’t speak. Didn’t need to. The crystal’s meaning was clear to us all.

My mind buzzed with her tension, to the magnitude of what was coming. To the knowledge that after this, nothing would be the same.

Cal let out a slow breath, and I watched years of experience and wariness settle into his features. “Don’t tell me that’s what it looks like.”

My voice cut in. “It’s the reason Vask won’t stop hunting her.”The reason I won’t let him find her,I didn’t add. But my stance shifted closer to her, protective without caging.

He glanced around, sudden wariness in every movement. The kind of careful that came from surviving too many betrayals. “Not here.”

He led us through a side passage, tighter and less trafficked. The kind of route someone takes when they’re used to avoiding attention. We reached a reinforced door with a security lock. Cal keyed in a code, movements practiced, subtle.

“No surveillance in here,” he said as we entered the small room. “This place stays off the books.” Like him. Like the secrets he kept.

Inside, he turned to Nyla, and I watched his facade crack just slightly. “You got any idea what you’re holding?”

“Every connection in Vask’s network,” she said, voice steady. “Every corrupt official, black market dealer, assassin. Everyone who helped him destroy lives.”

But Cal shook his head, and something in my gut tightened at his expression. “It’s more than that. That crystal is the key to his entire operation. Shipping routes. Security overrides. Even the leverage he holds over people, names, recordings, blackmail files. All of it.”

The atmosphere grew thick with unspoken meaning with each revelation of just how deep this went.

“With that crystal,” Cal continued, “someone could take him down... or take his place.”

My temper flared at the implications, at the danger surrounding her. At how close she’d come to being caught with this.

“I don’t want his operation,” Nyla snapped. “I just want him gone.” The words carried years of running, of survival, of nightmares I’d only glimpsed in her unguarded moments.

“Good,” Cal replied, but his eyes were grim. “But he doesn’t care what you want. He cares that you can ruin him.”

Nyla didn’t say a word. She just stared at the crystal like it was something that might burn her if she held it too long. Like she was finally seeing the full scope of what she carried.

And maybe it would burn her. Maybe it already had.

I watched the tension build behind her eyes. The way her fingers curled around the edge of her jacket. Signs I’d learned to read, to understand. Signs that said she was about to do something either brilliant or dangerous.

Usually both.

Cal was right. This wasn’t just about a bounty anymore. This was war. Quiet, targeted, and bloody. And she was the one carrying the fuse.

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