The Name No One Was Supposed to Hear

John Wick looked at his son one last time.

“This time,” he said quietly, “they’ll come with an army.”

The child closed the pendant in his fist.

Then he raised his head, looked his father in the eyes, and said the one thing no one in that room expected a frightened nine-year-old boy to say.

“Then tell me everything.”

And in that moment, with death rolling toward the saloon in a storm of engines and dust, the boy stopped being a child forever.