Page 22 of Fated to the Fang

"No."

"You'll want a reason that isn't sentiment."

"Her evidence is threaded through theirs. Her tags tie the seal kills to missing humans, offshore handoffs, this route, and this mark. Pull the skerry out of her and you pull the spine of the only map we have. Blind her and you blind us."

"Maps can be copied."

"Not this one. Your own law needs a clean mind to cut. Hers isn't. Their bleeder touched her and slid off. Force it and you may get holes instead of obedience, with no way to predict what fills them."

The true reason stays buried: the bleeder failed because I'm already laid over her. Cutting Avery would cut me, and something older than Helena's law. I don't give the chamber that. I give the map.

Helena studies the strip. "Then she's followed. For now." Her gaze comes up, flat as winter water. "Understand that 'followed' is mine to end."

Celeste catches me on the stair after, where the lamps don't reach.

"You haven't bought long. Nor have you got her safety."

"I bought time."

"You bought her. Helena lets the map stand because it's useful. When it stops, she asks why this human keeps her life when we've cut the rest. Strategy expires."

I hold my tongue.

"I don’t need a confession. A man guarding an asset lets it bleed when his life's at risk." She holds my eyes. "She's more than what you make out. I won't force it out of you."

A runner comes down—one of mine. Celeste reads, and her stillness makes it obvious it's serious.

"A worker's off the board tonight. Seasonal. Bussed tables at Nora's, ran weekend deck shifts for Saltline. Tracy Moss. Last confirmed four nights ago at the harbormaster's window, asking why Saltline runs cargo on nights with no charter booked. Nora tried to report it sooner. Saltline called it a missed shift. Greer did not."

Nora's is three doors from where Avery takes her coffee. Tracy carried her plates.

"It's closing in. They've stopped picking isolated divers and empty haul sites."

"Then they are done circling the investigation." Celeste folds the slip. "They are testing the people who keep Avery human. Coffee, clinic, harbor. They are learning which door she runs through first."

"Nora for trust. Owen for evidence. Saltline for access. Harbor House for sleep."

"And the clinic for guilt. If Lark worsens, she goes there. If Nora panics, she goes to the café. If Saltline moves, she follows the dock. They don't need to take Avery yet. They only need to pull the town around her until she steps where they want."

"Then we stop giving them options."

"You cannot lock down half the harbor without Helena seeing it."

"I'm not."

"No. You're building a private perimeter."

I name the places out loud. "Harbor House. Nora's café. Owen's clinic room. The Saltline berths. The fuel dock. Every route between them."

Celeste eyes me as each piece lands.

"Two shadows on the house. One inside the café from open to close. One at the clinic door, one on the roof opposite. Saltline departures logged by someone who answers to me, not the harbormaster. No one follows Avery close enough for her to feel it. No one reports her movements to the chamber."

"That last order is the dangerous one."

"That last order is the point."

"Helena will call that concealment."