Page 183 of Fractured Loyalties
I don’t like gambling on ‘soon.’
Mara edges closer to the counter, picks up a knife—not clumsily. Her fingers settle on the hilt like it’s something she’s held before. She’s not panicked. She’s preparing.
“You think they’re after you or me?” she asks.
“Both.”
Her throat works with a dry swallow. “You still think Volker’s controlling Jori?”
“He’s not just controlling him.” I glance at Lydia. “He’s using him to control Vale. Playing both ends.”
Mara lowers the knife. Her voice is tight. “So Vale doesn’t know his brother’s alive.”
“No. And if he finds out, he’ll become another weapon. Not against me. Against himself.”
Lydia raises an eyebrow. “You think he’ll break?”
“No. He’ll become desperate.”
And desperation makes people sloppy.
Mara speaks again. “What about the name?”
“Eidolon.”
She says it quietly, like it’s cursed. It tastes wrong in her mouth. I hear it.
I say nothing.
“You haven’t told me what it means.”
“It means nothing.”
Her eyes flash. “Don’t lie to me now.”
I turn to her. Let her see the exhaustion in my bones. “It means ghost. Phantom. The thing that haunts.”
“You?” she asks.
I nod once. “It was the name they gave me before I knew who I was.”
Lydia exhales hard. “Then it’s not just about power plays. He’s building mythology.”
“And I’m going to dismantle it,” I say.
Even if I bleed to do it.
The safehouse goes still.
Kinley’s already out in the trees. Lydia disappears into the back hallway to reposition with the rifle she never brags about, but I’ve seen her gut a man at six hundred meters with it.
Mara stays by the window, watching the fog thicken at the edge of the trees. Her fingers are tight around the knife. Not because she’s afraid. Because she’s waiting to be.
I peel off the blood-soaked gauze from my shoulder with a wince. The bullet missed the bone, but not by much. Mara moves before I can say a word.
“I’ll do it.”
She kneels beside the armchair, unscrewing the lid on the antiseptic bottle. Her hands don’t tremble.
