15. Chapter Fifteen #2
“The evidence is still circumstantial. He’ll claim the clearance was exploited, that someone spoofed his signature the way every other trail in this system got scrubbed,” I say.
She pulls up the infrastructure schematic and taps an intersection.
“The network, sure. But this isn’t on the network.
” She zooms in. “See this? It’s a hardwired circuit from the old build.
Predates the digital system entirely. Every time someone opens the main backbone panel, the physical contact trips and logs the clearance signature onto a drive that isn’t connected to anything.
No remote access. No way to wipe it from a terminal.
Kazren’s signature will be sitting on that drive right now, timestamped, and he can’t touch it because he doesn’t even know it exists. ”
I look at her. At the way her fingers still rest on the screen, sure of what she’s found. At the sharpness in her voice, the exhaustion underneath it, the fact that she’s still here doing this for me despite everything she learned while I was away.
This female. I don’t deserve her. But I’m not willing to hand her back. The evidence will not only stop my brother — it’s what I need to keep her safe.
“I’ll retrieve the panel myself,” I say, already reaching for my jacket. “You stay here. Don’t leave these rooms until I come back.”
She nods, but the movement lacks conviction.
Her fingers tighten around the edge of the blanket, and she watches me with the same troubled expression she’s worn ever since I returned.
It doesn’t fit the progress we’d made tonight.
We’d found Kazren. We finally had a path to proof.
We should be moving towards something together, yet she looks as though we’re standing at the edge of a cliff instead.
“Zavin…”
She holds my eyes for a long moment. Her chemistry shifts faster than I can separate it, resolve tangling with fear before both disappear beneath the careful control she’s worn ever since I returned. Her lips part once.
At last, I think she’s going to tell me what happened while I was gone.
“I…” The word barely leaves her mouth. She closes her eyes briefly, shakes her head and lets the moment die.
“Be careful,” she says quietly. “Kazren’s smart. If we worked out where the physical logs are kept, there’s a chance he has too. He could already be on his way there. It could be a trap.”
Concern softens her chemistry, and I don’t doubt it’s genuine.
Even now she’s thinking about my safety before her own.
Yet the feeling never comes alone. The wall she’s been holding between us is still there, hidden behind another smaller truth.
Whatever happened while I was gone, whatever frightened her badly enough to leave tears on her face, she’s still carrying it by herself.
I cradle her face between my hands. Her eyes close for the briefest moment, leaning into my touch before she catches herself again. I brush my thumb across her cheek and kiss her gently.
“I’ll take Resh with me,” I murmur. “We’ll recover the logs, and then I’ll come straight back.”
What I don’t say is that once those logs are in my hands, everything changes.
The evidence will bring Kazren down. My father won’t have a choice.
House Sethrak was built on loyalty, and betrayal is the one crime no rank or bloodline can survive.
Once Kazren falls, I’m getting Miro off Vahiri.
Not next week. Not after everything settles. Immediately.
She deserves a life where she never has to look over her shoulder again. Somewhere so far from House Sethrak that neither my brother nor anyone loyal to him can ever reach her.
And maybe…
Maybe when this is over, I’ll leave with her.
The thought should feel impossible. Instead it feels dangerously achievable, and once it takes hold I can’t make myself let it go.
Her fingers curl around my wrists, a line forming between her brows. “What is it?”
“Something I’d rather tell you when this is over.” I brush my mouth over hers. The sooner I get the node, the sooner I can plan our future.
But first I will deal with my brother.
“I won’t be long.”
Miro’s eyes bounce over my face as though she’s trying to memorize me. I find myself doing exactly the same thing before forcing my feet to move. I wait until the security door seals behind me, listening for the locks to engage. Only then do I turn towards the lift, bringing my wrist comm to life.
“Resh.”
He answers on the third pulse, his voice thick with sleep. “My lord.”
“I need you in the lower maintenance levels immediately.”
There isn’t a moment’s hesitation. “I’m on my way.”
By the time I reach the service lifts he’s already striding towards me, jacket thrown over hastily fastened clothes, still rubbing sleep from one eye. I thank him for coming so quickly.
“You’ve never called me before sunrise without a good reason,” he says. “What have you found?”
I glance towards the descending lift as the doors slide open. “Hopefully,” I say, stepping inside, “our way out.”
“Miro’s bait was accessed tonight. Percy tracked the clearance through the live network before the trail disappeared.”
“And?”
“It led us to Kazren.”
His head snaps up. “You’re certain?”
“The live records aren’t enough to accuse him.
He’ll claim someone exploited his clearance the same way every other trail has been scrubbed.
But the junction node records every authenticated handoff before the data reaches the network.
If his clearance touched the bait, it’ll be written here in hardware. ”
Resh’s orange eyes lock on mine. “And if it’s there…”
“I take it to Father.”
The lift opens onto the lower maintenance level. The passage beyond is cold and deserted, the walls lined with ageing service panels installed long before the House’s modern network. Miro’s directions lead us without hesitation to one panel near the end of the hall.
“This is it,” I say.
I crouch beside the panel while Resh keeps watch. The old fasteners creak as I loosen them one by one before easing the metal cover free. Inside, rows of dusty hardware sit exactly where Miro said they would.
“So far, so good,” I mutter.
I reach into the housing, disconnect the storage module and turn it over in my hands, checking the seals. Relief comes hard and fast. “They’re intact, but I’m going to check if any information has been scrubbed.”
I slot the module into my wrist band and wait while the old system wakes. Lines of data scroll across the display, timestamps cross-referencing with authenticated House clearances. I filter the entries until only the bait line remains.
Kazren’s clearance signature appears exactly where we’d hoped it would, stamped into the local hardware with a timestamp he can neither alter nor deny.
Relief washes through me for the space of a single heartbeat.
We finally have the evidence I’ve been searching for, evidence my father can’t dismiss as manipulated network traffic or fabricated credentials.
I continue scrolling through the remaining records, wanting to understand exactly how Kazren moved once he’d taken the bait.
The node faithfully records every authenticated transition through the House, each checkpoint building a path across the internal security grid.
Residential tier. Private lift. North wing.
I follow the route, mentally walking the halls before the final destination resolves on my display.
My father’s private quarters.
I frown and scroll back to the timestamp, checking it against the rest of the log. It places Kazren there while I was below with Tevan.
That isn’t right.
Kazren had no reason to go to Father unless Father was already expecting him.
If Kazren realized we’d laid a trap, his first instinct should have been to cover his tracks, destroy evidence or disappear long enough for the investigation to lose momentum. Instead he’d walked directly into Father’s private wing as though he had every expectation of being there.
I stare at the display for several long seconds, searching for another explanation. A duplicated access record. A maintenance fault. Anything that allows the pieces to stay where I’d put them.
I’ve been asking the wrong question from the beginning.
I kept trying to work out how Kazren had managed to stay a step ahead of me for so long, assuming he was operating alone.
He wasn’t. He’d had someone shielding him, someone with authority greater than my own, someone capable of redirecting investigations, burying reports and ensuring every trail ended exactly where they wanted it to.
The pieces finally lock together. It was never just Kazren. He hadn’t gone there to hide what he’d done. He’d gone because Father was expecting him, because Father had been part of it from the beginning. Father had shielded the male who murdered Selin. He’d known. The whole time, he’d known.
My wrist comm vibrates against my arm, dragging me back into the corridor. Irritated, I glance down, expecting another security update from the House.
Instead, a priority alert expands across the screen.
Private Quarters. Security Override Authorized.
Authorisation: Lord Sethrak.
For a heartbeat I simply stare at the notification, unable to make sense of it. Then every decision I’d made over the last hour crashes together.
Father knew I’d follow the evidence.
He knew I’d leave Miro behind because I’d convinced myself there wasn’t a safer place for her than my own quarters.
The junction node was never the trap. I was.
“Miro.”
Her name tears from my throat as I run, every instinct screaming the same truth.
I wasn’t protecting her.
I’d delivered her.