Page 59 of Fractured Loyalties
He waits in the narrow space between two buildings, graffiti slick on wet brick. Still calm.
I stop three paces out.
“Why that window?” I ask.
He shrugs. “It’s the only one with the light off.”
Bullshit.
He’s young. Maybe mid-twenties. Thin, wiry. Face too clean for someone loitering.
“You waiting on someone?”
He grins, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Maybe.”
Then he shifts. And I see it—the sleeve of his jacket riding up just enough to show the ink on his wrist.
A red triangle inside a circle. Rough. Fresh.
Caleb’s mark.
I move.
Fast. Controlled. My hand on his shoulder, spinning him to the wall.
He slams into it, breath knocked out, and I press just hard enough to remind him he’s not the one in control here.
“Where is he?” I ask.
He laughs. Dry. “Closer than you think.”
I tighten my grip.
He hisses, then grins again. “You’re not the only one who watches.”
That’s when I hear it.
A soft click behind me.
I release him, pivot hard—nothing there.
But now he’s gone.
The alley is empty. Only my pulse remains.
And the memory.
Chapter 13 – Mara - The Echo Room
I can still feel Elias on my skin.
It’s in the way my cardigan clings, in the way the bruised spot at the base of my neck hums beneath the fabric. Celeste had glanced at it. Not long enough to ask. Just enough to notice. I’d turned away before she could decide whether to speak.
Now, I’m in my office. The door shut. Light low. I haven’t turned on the overheads yet, and maybe that’s the first clue.
Something’s off.
Not wrong. Just...sideways.
