Thorne leaned forward, elbows on the table, expression tight. “The sentinels are investigating. One of the last trailers in the procession was rigged—blew sky high. It was deliberate.”
“Tom said he saw a mark,” Leo added, gaze locked on the smoke still curling up into the night sky through the window. “Red cross on a black crown. Left it right there in the wreckage, plain as day.”
“The resistance.” I exhaled, jaw clenched. “Goddamn Vael and his merry bunch of assholes.”
At the name, Thorne stiffened, eyes flicking up. “Casualties?”
Slade didn’t flinch. “Thirty-three dead. A hundred and fifty-three injured. Mostly civilians.”
Silence pressed heavy around the table.
“Do you think she was working with them?” I asked. “Or maybe she did, once?”
Leo shook his head, his usual smirk absent. “You saw where she was living. That wasn’t a safe house—it was a ruin. I wouldn’t let a dog sleep there.”
“We don’t know anything about her,” Thorne said, voice low. “No records. No trail. She’s like a ghost who just…appeared. And don’t forget how strong her signature was. It practically bled through the wards. Part of me thinks shewantedto be caught.”
I let the words hang a moment before looking straight at him. “Then there’s a simple way to find out.”
Thorne met my eyes, brows narrowing. “How?”
“We ask.”
Chapter 10
Elira
I was jerked awake by a sudden shove to my shoulder. My eyes flew open, heart already thudding, lungs dragging in air like I’d surfaced from deep water.
Phoenix stood over me, his face unreadable in the low light.
“Get up,” he said quietly, but firmly. “Come on.”
I scrambled upright, instinct pushing me to the far side of the bed as I tried to shake the fog of sleep from my mind. The room, sterile and dim, suddenly felt smaller with him inside it.
“Where are we going?” I asked, slipping my feet into the white cotton slippers they'd left me. My voice came out tighter than I meant it to.
Phoenix didn’t answer right away. He waited until I was standing before turning toward the door.
“We have a couple of questions for you,” he said, calm as ever. “That’s all.”
I narrowed my eyes, suspicion crawling up my spine. “Why can’t you ask them here?”
He turned back slightly, the corner of his mouth twitching—not a smile, more like a flicker of something harder. “Becausehewants to be the one to ask.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who’she?”
Phoenix didn’t answer.
Instead, he opened the door.
And waited.
I followed, my feet silent against the cold stone floor, but my heart thundered in my chest like it wanted out.
So this is it. My interrogation.
