The sky over the city was a bruised violet as Jalen left the university archives, Damon's envelope tucked tightly inside his coat. The streets were quiet, but he couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.
He walked home instead of calling a car, using back routes and alleyways he hadn't taken in years. The paranoia wasn't just instinct—it was survival now.
Back in his apartment, he cleared his table and laid out everything he had: Damon's letter, the torn page from the train, the red journal, and his own notes from years ago. It was a patchwork of confusion, and somewhere in it was the truth.
He picked up the torn page again. A phrase stood out this time:
*"…the ink doesn't lie, but the hands that guide it might."*
Was Damon warning him about someone? Or confessing something?
The next day, Jalen returned to his old writing haunt — a second-floor café hidden behind a bookstore. That's where he saw her again.
The woman from the train station.
She was sitting in the corner, sipping tea, a leather messenger bag at her feet. Their eyes met. No hesitation this time—she stood, walked straight to his table, and slid into the seat opposite him.
"You've opened it," she said softly.
He nodded. "Who are you?"
"Call me Kira. I worked with Damon. We were both investigating what the book exposed."
"And you just found me by chance?"
"No," she said, pulling out a worn notebook. "Damon left instructions. If anything happened to him, I was to find you. Help you finish the real story. Because there's more at stake than you realize."
She opened her notebook. Inside were names. Dozens. Politicians, businessmen, even media heads. All connected. All referenced in the early draft of *Inkspire*. All removed before publication.
"They're the reason Damon's dead," Kira said.
Jalen felt a chill settle over him. "So *Inkspire*... was real?"
"Every single word. The final chapter contains the proof—locations, files, whistleblowers. Damon hid it somewhere, encoded. We believe he used literature to mask the truth."
Jalen leaned forward. "Then we finish the story."
Kira nodded. "But be ready, Jalen. If we keep digging, they'll come after us."
Jalen smirked, heart pounding. "Then let them come. I've got blood in the ink too."