Chapter 10

Caldris was thinner and significantly paler, but his features were undeniably a mirror of Soren’s, wavy dark hair and cold gray eyes.

She couldn’t let that distract her, and she leaped in, holding a dagger to Caldris’s neck to stop him from screaming.

“Soren.” He snarled, his hand going for a drawer in his desk.

Aoba pushed the dagger closer, not giving him a chance. “Hands,” she said, and he obediently placed his hands on the top of the desk.

“And who is this?” Caldris scoffed. “Your little whore?”

“She’s Dornan’s daughter,” Soren replied. He locked the door and used the bodies of the dead guards for extra measure.

Under the hold of her dagger, she could feel the abrupt change in Caldris. His Adam’s apple was bobbing wildly, his sweat more profuse. He risked a glance toward her and quickly looked away. He started to tremble.

“Where is it?” Soren approached his desk, leaning on it. “The ledger.”

Caldris pursed his lips, his eyes a mixture of utter fear and defiance. “I’ll never tell you,” he spat, his voice a low, guttural growl.

Aoba pressed the dagger harder, a thin line of blood appearing on his skin. “You’ll tell me,” Soren crossed his arm, his voice a cold, hard whisper. “Or I’ll take that dagger from her, and start skinning you, one inch at a time.”

Caldris’s face, already pale, goes ashen. She couldn’t blame him. Even she felt the chill of death from his sentence.

“Soren...” Caldris stammered, his voice a pathetic, trembling whisper. “I ... I’m your brother. Your twin.”

“A twin brother you’ve been trying to get rid of for fifteen years,” Soren countered, his voice still dangerously quiet. He walked around the desk, his steps unnervingly silent. “Sending your dogs after me, trying to tie up the last loose end from the job that made you.”