“Really? I thought they’d be here for Vex.”
“Can’t believe the nerve of the fuckers.”
My hand flattens against the door.
The delegation from the stairwell window. Creed. The blonde woman with folded hands and icy eyes. The one who made my wolf go silent before I knew enough to be afraid of her.
They’re here for Rafael.
The lock clicks.
I step back as the door opens.
Nadia.
She has two paper cups in her hands. One is for me, apparently, because she sets it on the nightstand without asking whether I want it. The other stays between both of her palms, untouched.
“Tea,” she says. “Not Greta’s.”
“I don’t want tea. You locked me in.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think I had a choice.”
She sits on the edge of the bed, still holding her cup. Steam curls up between her hands, but she doesn’t drink.
“I need to tell you something,” she says, “and I need you to hear all of it before you react.”
My wolf comes up so fast, the room changes.
The paper cup on the nightstand. The steam thinning above Nadia’s hands. The electronic lock set into the doorframe, small and black and suddenly breakable.
“Tell me.”
“The Syndicate delegation is here to negotiate for Rafael. They want him back. They’re offering captives…wolves and dragon-blooded in Syndicate detention. In exchange for him.”
“No.”
“I said hear all of it.”
My hands are fists at my sides. I force them open.
“Viktor’s been in with them all day. Creed is running the political angle. Prisoner releases. Intelligence on active operations. The kind of package that’s hard to refuse when you answer to a council.”
“Viktor would do that?”
“Viktor is doing his job. Listening to every offer. Weighing every option, including the ones that turn his stomach.” Her thumb moves against the rim of her cup. “There’s something else.”
Nadia looks down at her cup. The tea has stopped steaming, and neither of us has touched it.
“The woman with the delegation,” she says. “I told you I didn’t know who she was.”
The stairwell window.She wasn’t on the visitor list.
“I know who she is now.” Nadia sets her cup down. “She’s a researcher. Syndicate-funded. Her name is Fell. Dr. Faith Fell.”
The last name hits first.
Fell.
