The river warehouse covered six acres of rusted steel and blind corners.

Leander wanted me in the armored command van.

I wanted him in another state.

We compromised by ignoring each other.

Celeste led the east team. Luca handled cameras from a van parked beneath the bridge. Leander controlled the Cross guards whose loyalty had survived the night.

I entered alone through a roof vent.

"Three heartbeats below you," Luca said in my earpiece.

"You can count heartbeats now?"

"Thermal sensors. Let me be mysterious."

I dropped onto a catwalk.

The warehouse smelled of oil and river water. Crates formed corridors below. No children. No voices.

Too clean.

"It's empty," I whispered.

Leander answered. "Get out."

The lights snapped on.

Men rose behind every crate.

Gunfire struck the railing.

I ran.

Rounds chased my feet along the catwalk. I vaulted a gap, caught a hanging chain, and swung through the open door of a crane cab.

The operator reached for me.

I introduced his forehead to the controls.

Below, Cross guards breached the west entrance.

"Rowan," Leander said. "South wall. Now."

"Busy."

"The building is wired."

Red lights blinked along the support columns.

"That seems excessive."

"Thirty seconds."

I jumped from the cab onto a suspended cargo net. It dropped under my weight. Bullets tore through the ropes.

Twenty seconds.

The south exit rolled open.

Leander stood in the doorway.

"Why are you here?" I shouted.

"Later."

Ten seconds.

I cut the last rope.

The cargo net swung.

Leander reached.

I caught his forearm and hit the concrete as the warehouse erupted behind us.

Heat rolled across the yard.

Glass rained into the river.

Leander covered my head with his body.

When the sound ended, I shoved him onto his back and ran both hands over his ribs, shoulders, and waist.

"Check," he said.

"Shut up."

"You enjoy this."

"A little."

His glasses were gone. A cut crossed his brow.

I wiped the blood with my sleeve.

"You entered a wired building."

"You were inside."

"There is nowhere I can go that you won't follow?"

His mouth tightened. "You remember."

"Hard to forget threats."

"It wasn't a threat."

Behind us, Celeste called for medics. Luca emerged from beneath the bridge carrying his laptop like an offended cat.

"The good news," he said, "is I copied their outbound traffic before they blew the servers."

"Bad news?" I asked.

"Adrian sent the move order six hours before he escaped."

Leander sat up.

"Where?"

Luca turned the screen.

A convoy had crossed into Indiana under the manifest of a youth charity. Its destination was a former monastery outside Gary.

My old training site.

The chapel had no windows.

We slept there in rows on stone floors. Instructors rang a bell before dawn. Anyone slow to rise lost breakfast.

I could still hear it.

One bell.

Feet hitting stone.

One bell.

Children learning not to cry.

Leander touched my neck.

The warehouse returned around me.

"Rowan."

I had drawn my knife.

Its point rested against his vest.

He did not move.

I lowered it.

"Don't touch me from behind."

"All right."

No wounded pride. No demand for apology.

He rose and held out his hand.

I took it.

The command van smelled of wet wool and burned insulation.

Celeste argued with emergency crews outside. Luca sat across from us, working through the data he had stolen before the warehouse servers failed.

Leander's hand remained around mine.

"You can let go," I said.

"You can too."

I did not.

Luca glanced over the top of his laptop. "I'm happy for you both. Deeply. Could your emotional breakthrough happen somewhere that is not blocking the equipment cabinet?"

We moved.

He opened a recovered security feed.

The video showed children boarding the charity convoy. Each carried a gray backpack. A woman in white checked their names.

Mara's profile crossed the screen.

My lungs forgot their job.

Leander reached toward me, remembered the warehouse, and stopped.

"Who is she?"

"My handler."

Luca froze the frame.

Mara looked exactly as she had fifteen years ago. Pale hair pinned at the nape. White gloves. A face made gentle by distance.

"We thought Voss was dead," Luca said.

"She taught us to encourage assumptions."

Leander watched the screen. "Did she train you?"

"She selected me."

The distinction mattered.

I stood too quickly. The van ceiling struck my shoulder.

"I need air."

Outside, the river carried burning debris toward the lake. Snow melted against the hot pavement.

Leander followed but stopped five feet away.

"May I come closer?"

I laughed without humor. "You make consent sound like a hostage negotiation."

"It feels more dangerous."

I nodded.

He came to the railing beside me.

"Mara rewarded obedience," I said. "Food. Medicine. Small things. Then she made sure the reward belonged to someone else."

"So you would protect them."

"So she could control me."

The water below reflected orange fire.

"Tomas?" Leander asked.

My head turned.

"You said his name in your sleep."

I gripped the railing until rust cut my palm.

"He was eleven. He trusted me."

Leander waited.

"I made a choice that kept me alive."

"And killed him?"

"Yes."

No softened language. No rescue hidden in grammar.

I opened my hand. Blood marked the rail.

Leander took out a handkerchief.

"May I?"

I gave him my palm.

He wrapped it carefully.

"Mara will use him," I said. "The memory."

"Then we plan for it."

"You can't plan around a dead child."

"No. We plan around the living man she intends to hurt."

He tied the cloth.

Behind us, Luca called my name.

I did not turn immediately.

Leander's thumb rested beside the knot.

"You are not what she made," he said.

"You don't know that."

"I know you left three guards breathing tonight."

"Retirement has made me inefficient."

"It has made you choose."

Luca called again.

We went inside together.

At the house, we found a video waiting on Leander's private server.

Adrian stood inside the monastery chapel.

Beside him, a thin boy of nineteen stared into the camera. A bruise closed one eye.

"This is Eli Ward," Adrian said. "Nocturne's replacement."

The boy lifted his chin.

Adrian pressed a gun to his temple.

"Come home, Rowan. Or watch us make another you."