Kael flinched when I raised the dagger. His grip tightened on my tunic, and several guards shifted behind me, waiting to see where the blade would fall.
I cut through the hem he held instead of his flesh. The fabric parted cleanly. A dirty strip stayed in his fist while I stepped beyond his reach.
“You don't touch me again.”
His apology had arrived a decade too late.
I took Silas's folded list from the pouch and opened it. The pages had been cramped into the safe beneath the stolen memory crystals.
I threw them down in front of Kael. They spread across the dais, each carrying a woman's name, her village, and the date Silas had taken her.
“He did this for years inside your territory. You sent isolated women to that clinic and never checked a single room or record. Then you handed him
