Chapter 10 The ledger of lies

Zara

We didn't speak much on the drive back.

I sat in the passenger seat with the ledger in my lap like it was a bomb. Which, I guess, it was. Not the explodey kind - but the kind that shatters lives when it goes off.

Damian kept his eyes on the road, jaw clenched tight, knuckles white around the steering wheel. His silence wasn't cold. Just... contained. Like he knew if he let go of his calm, even for a second, it'd all come undone.

I knew the feeling.

When we pulled into the underground garage beneath his building, he finally spoke.

"I'll clear the penthouse. We sort through it together."

"No guards," I said.

"Just us," he promised.

I nodded once.

God, what was I doing?

---

Two hours later, we were knee-deep in secrets.

The ledger was worse than I imagined. Not just exile orders or falsified accusations - but financial records, trafficking contracts, name after name of people paid to disappear.

Wolves. Witches. Even humans.

Anyone who got too close to the truth or didn't toe the line.

Black Ridge hadn't just exiled me.

They'd been cleaning house for years.

Damian's face got paler with every page. He stopped talking after a while. Just read and read, each flip of a page more violent than the last.

"This..." he whispered. "This is genocide."

"No," I said quietly. "It's politics."

He looked at me.

I met his eyes.

"You knew it wasn't clean," I said. "You just didn't know how deep the rot went."

He didn't deny it.

---

At some point, the sun went down and I curled up on the couch again, legs tucked under me, the ledger open on the coffee table like some ancient curse.

Damian sat on the floor beside it, one hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"This one," he said, tapping a name with his thumb. "This is the wolf they said you leaked intel to. Jaxon Rourke."

I looked at it.

And froze.

Because I remembered that name.

He was a trader. Smuggled magical artifacts across borders.

But I never leaked to him.

He came to me once. Told me something was off. Warned me to be careful.

And then... he vanished.

"They killed him," I said.

"Yeah," Damian muttered. "They blamed you."

I closed the book.

"I'm gonna expose them."

"I know."

"I mean it."

"So do I."

He stood.

Came to sit beside me.

"I'll help you burn it down, Zara," he said. "Even if it takes me with it."

---

Damian

I meant it.

Every word.

But when I looked at her - hair messy, eyes tired, skin still marked by the past - I felt something tighten in my chest.

Guilt? Regret? Maybe both.

"I never stopped loving you," I said before I could stop myself.

She didn't look at me.

Didn't smile.

Didn't cry.

She just said, "You loved the girl I used to be. I don't know if that's me anymore."

"It is."

"How do you know?"

"Because I see her. Every damn time you glare at me."

That got the tiniest smirk from her.

Progress.

---

The moment didn't last.

A crash outside the window shattered it instantly.

I was on my feet in a second, reaching for the blade under the coffee table. Zara grabbed the pistol I'd hidden behind the bookshelf.

She was fast. Trained. Not the same wolf I used to know.

We crept toward the glass wall overlooking the terrace.

Movement.

Shadow.

Then -

BOOM.

The side window exploded inward.

Smoke. Screams. Snarling.

Elin's voice, cold and clipped: "Take the book. Kill the girl."

Zara's eyes met mine for a split second.

Then all hell broke loose.

---

Zara

I should've seen it coming.

The minute I trusted Elin - even a little - the second I believed she wanted out, I played right into her trap.

She gave me the ledger.

So I'd lead her straight to it.

She didn't want to destroy Black Ridge.

She wanted to bury the evidence for good.

And bury me with it.

Three wolves in tactical black stormed the penthouse, masked, fangs bared. Not pack grunts - trained assassins. The kind who didn't ask questions before they ripped out throats.

Damian moved like a shadow. Silent. Deadly.

I held my ground with the gun, aiming low, aiming fast.

Two shots. One down.

But another came at me hard, claws slicing down my arm before I got my knee into his stomach and slammed the back of his head into the table.

Blood.

Mine and his.

The ledger hit the floor.

I reached for it-

"Elin's gonna eat your heart for breakfast," the wolf sneered.

I shot him in the leg.

"Tell her to choke."

---

Damian

Zara bled and didn't blink.

That scared me more than the attackers.

Because she wasn't shaken.

She was ready.

Like she'd been waiting for this.

I took the last wolf down with a hard kick to the chest and a silver blade to the ribs.

He hit the ground, wheezing, not dead - but not getting back up anytime soon.

The smoke cleared.

Zara wiped blood from her face.

"We need to go," she said.

I nodded.

"We take the ledger. We don't stop. We blow the rest of this place if we have to."

"Where do we go?"

"Where Elin can't follow."

"And that place exists?"

She looked at me.

A grin cracked across her face.

"No," she said. "But it'll be fun trying."