The Severed Bond

before I started working there. I climbed the stairs at ten to four with my badge on my coat and the photocopied ledger folded inside my jacket,

numb in the winter, and once, on the anniversary of the rejection, it had throbbed

She was al

e the Bureau used for wolves who might bite. I watched her through the little glass panel in the door. She sat with her coat folded over the back of the

good," he said. "I have asked her the same question four different ways and she has given me the same answer in four different

s she to

m." He sipped his tea. "She also told me she has never met you, which is a lie I could see from a

ad slightly, as if she could feel me watching, and

the intervi

eyes, flat and patient. "

a Severance mark is my case. If she knows somethin

d she tal

to see me squirm." It was the same lie she had told on the street, and it ca

ou want to confess to things you had not done. "Fine. But I will be listening, and

at down across from Anya and set my notebook on the

," she said. "W

perly. Name, occupation, and

olleague. A tip." She looked at me with her chin

Kirchstrasse was Severed within the last week. That is not public kno

. "Then you know

afe. I want to hear it in this ro

e. The Council uses it on bonded wolves it decides are dangerous, and it is supposed to be rare and legal and consensual. It is none of those things. Three wolves have died in this city in the last month wi

source f

ration office. I will

cannot

ou have folded in your jacket. It has three names on it. Compare it to the Bure

ld hear Rolf's chair cr

rest of that ledger," I

otocopy." She leaned back. "I have a condition, Detective. If I am going to help you, you keep my name out of your file. I have a brother and

s on the back of the copy, th

I could say anything else, and h

door and stood with his ba

id n

could smell the bond on you the moment she walked into that room, Elias. It was coming off your arm like smoke off a

eemed to ti

nd if they find out a Bureau detective is bonded to a woman who is investigating the Severance, they will not ask you questions. They will order a review of your case, and then they will order a seco

. Once, twice, three times, the

nd then at me, and his f

dispatch, and it was four lines long, and I

. Bond crimes case reassigned. Detective Voss su

than I thought,"

ut. Neither of them was a Bureau officer. One of them was holding a leather folder with the Council s

nd registration has been flagged fo