Dax met his gaze.
“Before tonight, I would have said they wouldn’t dare.”
Cole continued staring into the flames.
“They have dared worse.”
Malakai nodded before signing again.
X remains missing. We cannot separate that from the rest of this.
Something tightened across Dax’s face.
“You think he turned against us?”
“No,” Cole answered too quickly. “X wouldn’t betray Sule after everything Sule did for him.”
“But you think something happened.”
Malakai answered before Cole could.
X was conducting reconnaissance near the edge of heretic territory. We have heard nothing from him in weeks. He may be dead, or he may have been taken.
Dax’s jaw flexed.
“He could still be returning with information. That may be the reason for the silence.”
“Or they have broken him,” Cole said, his gaze remaining fixed on the fire, “and he is the reason they know how vulnerable the stronghold has become.”
The possibility settled heavily over the room.
None of them wanted to believe X had betrayed the clan, but belief had become less useful than preparation. Leena’s bloodhad barely been cleaned from the chamber above them, the heir remained vulnerable, and the damaged wards had already announced weakness across the city.
Dax sat back.
“I went to Bar X during patrol.”
Cole’s attention shifted immediately.
Malakai moved closer to the table so he could follow Dax’s hands as well as his face.
“The club is tense,” Dax continued, speaking while signing the core of the report. “The head of security is holding it together in X’s absence. He has seen unfamiliar vampires entering alone or in pairs, watching rather than feeding.”
“What are they watching?” Cole asked.
“The exits, the staff, and anyone talking about the stronghold. Questions are being asked about the heir, and someone is deliberately shaping the rumors around Leena’s death.”
Malakai’s eyes narrowed.
Which means the conversations are not random.
“No. Security also heard Marcella’s name used as a warning.”
Cole pushed away from the hearth.
“That is not coincidence.”
“It is a net tightening,” Dax said. “X’s disappearance, the questions about Norse, and the rumors about Sule withdrawing are being used together.”
