“He would use the old service tunnels,” Krishka finishes.
“Can they lead out?”Briana asks.
“Yes,” Aldron says.“Or deeper.”
Briana nods, like this is normal.Like remembering drains in rooms where people bled is simply another clue.
My beast mourns her.The woman she was before this.The woman she’ll become because of it.
Aldron assigns roles.Malichai and Ari won’t enter unless necessary.His presence would alert every old blood family before we reached the door.Aldron can’t go in at first for the same reason.Krishka and Akasha will work the wards from outside.Cruz will enter as muscle with Moira’s invitation, glamoured as her guard.
Then Aldron says the thing I already know is coming.“Briana goes in as bait.”
The room freezes.My beast slams against my control so hard I taste blood.Aldron doesn’t look at me.He is either very smart or very cruel.
“She won’t be unprotected,” he continues.“She’ll wear layered charms.A glamour.A blood mask.Knox will enter as her guard.”
“No glamour on me,” Briana says.
Aldron’s eyes narrow.“Briana...”
“They want me.If I walk in hidden, they’ll know it’s a trap.”
“She’s right,” Krishka says, and I slowly turn my head toward the witch.She lifts a brow.“Don’t look at me like that.I didn’t create the situation.”
Briana’s gaze is locked on the blueprint.“They invited the girl they lost.Let them see her.”
“You aren’t wearing fear for them,” I say.
Her eyes lift to mine.“No,” she says.“I’m wearing survival.”
Akasha breaks the silence.“I can make a charm that triggers if anyone tries to bind her.It won’t stop everything, but it will alert us.”
Krishka nods.“I can add a pain backlash to the first person who touches her with the intent to harm.”
“Make it strong,” I say.
Krishka’s smile is sharp.“I was not planning to make it polite.”
Cruz taps the blueprint.“What about extraction?”
“Here.”Aldron points to a service tunnel.“If things go wrong, Knox gets Briana out through this passage.”
“And if Knox is the thing going wrong?”Briana asks.
Everyone goes silent again.My gaze snaps to hers, but she doesn’t flinch.Good girl.The thought moves through me before I can stop it, dark and warm and mine.I crush it before it reaches my mouth.
Cruz answers when I can’t.“Then I get you out.”
Briana looks at him.“Can you stop him?”
Cruz’s face turns serious.“No.”I respect him for not lying.“But,” he says, “I can slow him down and yell loud enough for someone worse to intervene.”
Aldron sighs.“I assume I am someone worse.”
“Obviously,” Cruz says.
Briana looks at me again.“Can you stop yourself?”
