I let her sleep.
Chapter
Twenty-Six
"The district boundary is the choke point." I tap the screen where the approach narrows. "Vivienne controls access from here south. We come in on this road, we're visible before we reach cover. Julian, what's the surveillance density?"
Julian marks something on his tablet. The patch over his left eye is black against the skin at his temple, which is still pink. It shouldn't be. Vampire healing doesn't leave marks like that. Whatever the witch-magic did, his body hasn't finished fighting it. His remaining eye stays on the screen. "Three fixed cameras on the main approach. Rotating patrol every forty minutes. She runs a tight perimeter."
"Then we don't use the main approach." I drag my finger along the edge of the map. "This access road parallels the rail line. No cameras. No patrol overlap. We move in at the shift change, and we're inside her territory before her people register unfamiliar vehicles."
Maximus is leaning against the wall beside the screen. His arms are crossed. He hasn't interrupted once, and something tight and held-still pulses faintly where the bond sits under my ribs.
"Seraphina," I say. "Can you mask our approach from Vivienne's ward network?"
"Within limits. Her wards are tuned for hostile signatures. If your people enter without aggressive intent, the wards will flag you as unusual, not threatening. That buys time. Not invisibility."
"How much time?"
"Minutes. Perhaps ten."
"Ten is enough." I uncap the dry-erase marker and draw the route on the whiteboard behind Julian. "We enter here. Maximus and I go to Vivienne directly. Marcellus runs the perimeter with two of Okonkwo's people. If she listens, we lay out the contamination evidence and let her draw her own conclusions. If she doesn't listen, we leave clean and we've lost nothing but a night."
"And if she's already made a deal with Konstantin?" Marcellus asks from the back wall.
"Then we find that out too."
I set the marker down and turn back to the screen. The map Maximus and I marked up last night is still spread across the table, pen lines tracing a route to a place I'll never reach in time.
"The ward suppression will require preparation," Seraphina says. "I'll need to calibrate against Vivienne's specific lattice, which means I should begin the..."
She stops. Her hand goes flat on the table. Her eyes close.
Julian's stylus stops. Marcellus straightens. Maximus pushes off the wall.
"Seraphina?"
"Witch signatures." Her voice thins, goes distant. "Multiple locations. Simultaneous activation."
"How many?"
"Four. Five." Her brow creases. "More. They're still firing."
Julian's tablet buzzes. Then Ethan's terminal lights up with three incoming alerts.
"Okonkwo on line one," Ethan says.
"Put him through."
Okonkwo's voice comes through the speaker stripped of every diplomatic cadence I've heard from him. Raw. Tight. "My reserves. The blood has turned. Every unit on the shelves. No breach. No forced entry. The bags are sealed and the blood inside them is contaminated."
The devices. Adrienne built more of them.
My stomach drops before my brain catches up. The room tilts sideways and my mouth floods with something sour and metallic, and I grip the edge of the table hard enough to feel the grain press into my palms.
Not now.
I swallow it down. Press my hands flat on the wood.
