David woke to sunlight on his face and someone's jacket draped over his shoulders and the smell of something cooking somewhere in the estate. He was still on the garden bench, which meant he'd slept there the whole night, which meant Becca had let him sleep there the whole night, which meant she'd probably stayed with him until she was sure he wasn't going to fall off or freeze or do something stupid in his sleep. He sat up slowly, his neck stiff, his back protesting, and found Lucas sitting on the bench across from him with a plate of food and an expression that said he'd been waiting for this moment.
"You look terrible," Lucas said, which was apparently going to be everyone's greeting for him from now on.
"Feel worse." David rubbed his eyes, tried to remember how he'd gotten from the bench to the bench, realized he hadn't moved at all. "What time is it?"
"Late. Becca said to let you sleep. Erica's been calling. Something about the people at the portal, the ones who attacked us. She thinks she found something."
David was on his feet before he finished the sentence, his neck forgotten, his back forgotten, everything forgotten except Erica's name and the word found. "What? What did she find?"
Lucas held up his hands. "She didn't tell me. She said she wanted to tell all of us at the same time. So eat something, wash your face, and let's go. She's meeting us at your apartment in an hour."
---
The ride back to the city felt different than the ride out. The hover-car was the same, the driver was the same, the route was the same. But David was different. He'd left with a map and a journal and a list of names and come back with an egg hidden somewhere no one could find it and the knowledge that the people who killed his parents were closer than he'd ever realized. He sat in the back with Lucas beside him and Becca across from him and watched the city rise up around them and wondered what Erica had found.
Lucas was talking about something, about the estate, about Kaito, about the food he'd eaten before David woke up, about anything that wasn't what they were driving toward. David let the words wash over him, let the familiar rhythm of Lucas's voice fill the silence, let himself not think for a few minutes about what was waiting for them.
Becca was watching him, her eyes steady, her face unreadable. She'd been quiet since they left the estate, since the garden, since the night before when she'd sat beside him while the stars moved across the sky. He wanted to say something to her, something about thank you or about the jacket she'd left on his shoulders or about the way she'd stayed when she didn't have to. But the words didn't come and the car was already landing and Lucas was already opening the door.
Erica was waiting outside his apartment building, her bow across her back, her face the same calm mask she always wore. But David had known her long enough now to see the tension in her shoulders, the way her eyes moved too fast, the way her hands stayed close to her weapons.
"Inside," she said. "We can't talk here."
They climbed the stairs to his apartment, the same stairs he'd climbed a thousand times, the same door he'd opened a thousand times, the same cracked ceiling he'd stared at a thousand nights. But everything felt different now. The egg was somewhere in the space behind his mind, waiting, sleeping, hidden. The list of names was in his pocket, burning against his thigh. And Erica was closing the door behind them with an expression that made his stomach clench.
"Sit down," she said.
David sat on the couch. Lucas sat beside him. Becca stayed standing, her back to the wall, her eyes on Erica.
Erica pulled out her phone, scrolled through something, held it up. "The people who attacked you at the portal, the ones who've been watching for three days, I found out who they work for."
The screen showed a logo, something David didn't recognize, a symbol that meant nothing to him. But Becca went very still beside him and Lucas stopped breathing for a second and Erica's face was the calmest it had ever been.
"Who?" David asked.
Erica lowered the phone. "The Vane Clan."
The name hit him like a punch to the chest. Marcus Vane's family. The people who'd been circling since the awakening, making offers, asking questions, warning Lucas about the wrong side of history. The name at the top of his list, the first name his father had written, the people who had betrayed the Phoenix Clan and helped destroy everything his parents built.
"You're sure?" Becca's voice was sharp.
"I tracked the men who ran, the ones Lucas didn't hit. Followed them to a safe house in District Nine. Watched them report to a woman who reports to Marcus Vane's father." Erica's voice was flat, clinical. "The Vane Clan has been looking for the vault for years. They hired people, trained people, sent people into the Expanse to find it. When you started looking, they followed. When Kaito got close to Chen, they attacked. When you found the vault, they were waiting."
David sat there, the words settling into him, the shape of everything finally becoming clear. The Vane Clan had killed his parents. The Vane Clan had been hunting for the egg for eighteen years. The Vane Clan had attacked Kaito and tried to take him at the portal. And Marcus Vane, the son, had been watching them since the beginning, testing them, warning them, waiting for his chance.
"They know," he said, his voice coming out steadier than he felt. "They know who I am. They've always known."
Erica nodded. "The Ashborn name. The fire. The way you awakened. They knew the moment the rankings came out. Maybe before."
Lucas was gripping the couch cushions, his knuckles white, his face pale. "So the whole time, the offers, the messages, Marcus calling me, all of it was just them trying to figure out how much we knew."
"Trying to figure out if you were a threat," Erica said. "Trying to figure out if David knew the truth. Trying to figure out if they needed to move now or if they could wait."
Becca moved from the wall, came to stand beside David, her presence steady and solid. "And now? What happens now?"
Erica put her phone away, her face grim. "Now they know David has what they want. They know he found the vault, that he took something from it, that he hid it somewhere they can't find. They're not going to wait anymore. They're not going to watch anymore. They're going to come for him."
The room was very quiet. David could hear his own breathing, Lucas's breathing, the faint hum of the city outside. He thought about his father's journal, about the last entries, about the fear that had crept into his handwriting in those final days. He thought about his mother's voice in the vision, the way she'd told him to be strong, to be ready, to be the person they knew he could be.
"Let them come," he said.
Lucas turned to look at him. "David."
"Let them come." He stood up, his hands steady, his voice steady, something in his chest burning brighter than it ever had before. "They've been hunting my family for eighteen years. They killed my parents. They tried to kill Kaito. They tried to take me at the portal. And I'm done running."
Becca was watching him, something in her expression shifting, something that looked like pride. "What are you going to do?"
David walked to the window, looked out at the city where his parents had died, where their killers had been living for eighteen years, where the people who wanted what he was protecting were waiting for him to make a mistake.
"I'm going to find Director Chen," he said. "I'm going to find out what she knows, who she's working with, how far this goes. And then I'm going to find Marcus Vane's father and I'm going to make him tell me why he killed my family."
Lucas stood up, his face set, his hands clenched. "And when you find him?"
David turned from the window, the fire in his chest spreading to his hands, flickering at his fingertips, waiting. "Then I'm going to make him pay for what he did."
No one spoke. Lucas was looking at him like he was seeing someone new, someone he'd always known was there but had never seen before. Becca was still, her face unreadable, her shadows pooling at her feet. Erica was watching the door, already thinking about the next move, the next step, the next thing they needed to do to stay ahead of the people coming for them.
David let the fire die, let his hands cool, let himself breathe. "But first, we need to be smart. We need to be patient. We need to be ready when they come for us." He looked at Erica. "You said you followed the men who attacked us. You know where they are?"
Erica nodded slowly. "I know where their safe house is. I know who they report to. I know where Marcus Vane lives."
"Then we watch them. We learn everything we can about them. We figure out who they are, who they work for, what they want. And when we know enough, when we're ready, we move."
Lucas stepped forward, his face breaking into that familiar grin, the one that meant he was ready for anything. "I like this plan. This is a good plan. A plan where we punch people who deserve punching."
Becca's lips twitched. "That's your criteria for a good plan?"
"It's the only criteria that matters." Lucas looked at David. "So what's first?"
David looked at his friends, at the people who had followed him into the Expanse and stood beside him against assassins and trusted him when he gave them nothing to trust. "First, we find out what Director Chen knows. And then we find out who she's protecting."
Erica pulled out her phone again, her fingers moving across the screen. "I know someone who can get us into her office. Someone who owes me a favor. But if we do this, if we go in there, she's going to know it was us. She's going to know we're coming for her."