Levi tipped his chin. “Plain terms, Irin. Why are you here?”
Irin didn’t glance at the rope again; they kept their eyes on us. “We’ve heard talk,” they
said. “A boy survived a collector. One of ours, taken long ago. His parents want him home. His brother misses him. A child needs his people, and his people want him.”
Haiden’s posture thinned into purpose. “Name the collector.”
“A man who hoarded what he could not become.” Irin’s mouth flattened. “You call him
Marcus.”
Noah’s gaze slid down and back up. Your rumor got that much right
Irin nodded once. “Then hear the rest in the same honesty. We come peaceful because we honor your rope.” Their hands opened, palms bare. “But if you keep what is not yours, if you refuse family their blood, others will come who do not honor rope. They will call it a war. I am sent to tell you this so that you may choose the wiser path.”
8
42
A
The word put a chill through the morning that had nothing to do with mist. No one moved except to breathe.
4
A
Levi’s voice stayed even. “A threat ends a conversation here.”
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444
257
A
Irin didn’t flinch. “It is not my threat. It is the truth of those behind me.”
37
Xavier didn’t raise his voice. He never needs to. “Then carry this back to them: a child is not a thing to be reclaimed. He is a person. He is safe. If anyone comes with war in their mouths, they will never reach him.”
I put it simpler. “He isn’t yours.”
Irin held my stare. “He was before he was taken.‘
“And after he was taken?” I asked. “After he was wrapped in someone else’s hands,
starved, used? We were the ones who cut him loose. He chose us back. That choice
matters more than blood spoken by strangers.”
Something tugged at Irin’s jaw and let go. “You would deny his parents the right to hold
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Chapter 128
him?”
“I would deny anyone the right to take him,” I said. “Holding is earned. It is done carefully. It takes time.”
Haiden let his hands hang, loose and ready. “You want something from us? Try helping instead of telling us what happens if we don’t cave. Give us proof you’re not the same people who ride wolves into yards.”
“We are not,” Irin said, quick enough. “We split long ago. Those who use wolves are not mine.”
“Then prove you are who you say,” Levi said. “If there’s a mother and a father and a brother, put proof in my hand. Tell us something we can check without spilling the boy’s heart on the ground. A lullaby line. A scar only family would know. Where he learned to say his name before anyone taught him to write it.” He spread his fingers. “And expect nothing in return but a message received. This is not a bargain. It’s the first step of not being a liar.”
Irin’s gaze dipped, not submission; calculation. “I will ask. But you know what they will
ask back.”
The red cord in my pocket felt heavier. I didn’t take it out. “Then tell the boy this,” I said. “There is a path to kindness and a path to being far. You stood with us here, so you already know which one we take.”
- me. “If I return with letters and no demands, if I ask for another rope and another morning two days from now, you will come?”
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