"Could you block it? If you knew it was coming?"
"Maybe. If I could feel the resonance before it hit full strength. The bracelet has a signature, like everything fae. I'd recognize it." She picked up her cup again. "But Malrick doesn't know I can feel that. He thinks I'm reactive. Emotional."
"He's working off old data."
"Very old data." Something moved across her face that was closer to the expression she'd worn in the meadow when the wind held. Confidence. "What's the plan?"
"I'm going to Emmett this morning. You're coming with me."
"Because?"
"Because this is your town. Your power. Your history he's using. You should be in the room when the decisions get made."
She held his eyes over the cup. "Alright."
Emmett's officewas the same as before. Desk, two chairs, the window overlooking the square. What was different was who was in the room. Rowan stood at the window with his arms crossed, still in work clothes. Emmett sat behind the desk. Rafe took one chair and Isla took the other.
Emmett looked at her for a long moment when she sat down. She looked back without flinching. Whatever he was assessing, he seemed to find it.
"Miss Green," he said. "I understand you have information about Sloane's methods that goes beyond what Captain Lupeus has already provided."
"I know what he's planning to use against me. A resonance artifact connected to my family's stormcaller line. If he gets it close enough while the conditions are right, it could amplify my connection to atmospheric pressure past my control threshold."
"Could or would?"
"Could. If I don't see it coming. If I do, I can block the resonance before it peaks."
Emmett leaned back. "And you'd need to know it was coming."
"I'd need to feel it. The artifact has a signature. I've been around fae objects my whole life. If it enters my range, I'll know."
"How close does it need to be?"
"Within a quarter mile. Maybe less, depending on how strong the resonance has gotten over the years. Objects like that accumulate charge the longer they're separated from their carrier."
Emmett looked at Rafe. "What's Sloane's timeline?"
"The Ashvane is ready to leave tomorrow. If Malrick's plan depends on wrecking my ship while it's still in the mooring, he has to move today or tonight. He cleared out of the Hargrove place, which means he's either left Hollow Oak or he's gone to ground somewhere we haven't looked."
"He hasn't left." Emmett said it flatly. "My patrol saw a man matching his description on the north ridge road at dawn. He's still here. He's just moved."
"Then he's waiting for the right moment. A storm front. Something he can push her into and blame on the weather."
"There's a system building on the northern range," Isla said. Everyone looked at her. "I can feel it. Standard late-spring pressure front, same kind that's been rolling through all week. It'll reach the valley by tonight. Maybe earlier if the mountain winds push it."
"And if Malrick activates the artifact during that front," Rafe said, "her resonance amplifies the natural storm into something that looks like an uncontrolled stormcaller event. The damage hits the dock, the Ashvane, the lakeside structures. He's got traders primed with forged manifests telling them this is what happens when a wolf captain partners with a weather fae."
"Then he steps in with clean routes and a sympathetic handshake," Emmett finished. "I understand the play." He stood and went to the window, looking out at the square. "What do you need from the Council?"
"Bodies," Rafe said. "On the dock, on the western path, at the north ridge road. If Malrick's man is going to deliver that artifact, he has to move it physically. Someone has to carry it close enough to Isla's range. If we can intercept the carrier before the artifact gets within reach, the plan falls apart and their caught red-handed."
"And if we can't intercept?"
"Then I block it," Isla said. "I'll be at the shoreline. If the resonance enters my range, I'll feel the signature and counter it before it peaks. But I need the natural storm left alone. If people panic and start making noise about the weather, it complicates what I'm doing."
Emmett turned from the window. "You're asking me to let a storm roll over this town and trust that you can hold it."
"I've held worse. Last night, the system over the lake was mine. I built it, I directed it, I dissolved it. You can check with your patrol. The rotation tightened instead of expanding. No lightning. No flooding. Controlled from start to finish."
