Page 172 of Beasts of Mine

“It worked last night.” Tavian pointed out as he glanced toward the radio, confusion briefly creasing his brow while he followed my attention.

“From the terrace.” I answered Tavian as I checked the battery indicator. “That's not much help if someone can't reach the terrace.”

Tavian's expression changed immediately, and Malek reached for his boots before I needed to explain further.

“If her station radio has the same problem ours does inside, we need to know.” Malek said as he crouched to tighten one loosened lace, his voice taking on the clipped practicality it always did when a problem involved someone's safety.

“Exactly.” I answered Malek as I removed the second handset from its charger. “Ours won't tell us everything, but it'll show us where the worst areas are.”

“What do you need?” Tavian asked as he stepped closer, all traces of teasing disappearing while his attention settled on the second radio.

“Take this to the upper terrace.” I told Tavian as I handed him the handset, making sure the battery showed full before releasing it. “Malek and I will check inside.”

“Got it.” Tavian answered as he clipped the radio against his waistband and headed toward the courtyard without another joke, already extending the antenna while he walked. That was one of the things people tended to underestimate about Tavian. He could turn almost anything into entertainment until something genuinely mattered, and then he listened.

We learned what we needed fairly quickly. Reception from the open courtyard was usable, and near the western wall Tavian came through clearly enough that I could hear the impatience beginning in his voice. Inside the sleeping room, static immediately broke across his words, and farther into the protected storage areas I started losing entire pieces of sentences.

“Again.” I instructed Tavian through the radio as I moved from the sleeping room toward the outer corridor, watching the signal indicator while static crackled through the handset.

“I'm beginning to run out of interesting things to say.” Tavian complained through the speaker, his voice breaking beneath the interference enough to prove the problem better than any indicator could have.

“That would be a historic first.” I replied to Tavian as I marked the location on a scrap of paper and moved several steps closer to the courtyard.

“Luca is being cruel to me.” Tavian informed Malek through another burst of static, somehow managing to sound offended even though half the sentence disappeared.

“He's working.” Malek answered Tavian from beside me, his attention moving toward the old carvings cut into the interior wall.

“Both can be true.” Tavian argued through the radio, his voice becoming clearer as I reached the outer corridor. Malek studied the worn markings without touching them, his expression becoming more thoughtful as he looked from the carvings to the handset in my hand.

“The protections may be affecting this section more.” Malek observed, following one of the weathered lines through the stone.

“That could be part of it.” I answered Malek while listening to the cleaner signal from the corridor. “I'm not changing the sanctuary protections for a radio.”

“Then we work around them.” Malek replied, letting his hand fall before turning toward me.

“Exactly.” I told Malek, making one final mark before we headed back toward the courtyard. There was no reason to test every corner of the sanctuary. We already knew enough to identify the problem, but we still didn't know whether Evie's station radio would behave exactly like ours inside the protections.

“We ask her.” I told Malek once Tavian returned and I folded the paper into my pocket. “Next time she's here with the station radio, we test hers before deciding what we need.”

“Good.” Malek answered with a short nod, apparently satisfied with having a useful next step rather than a guess.

“I still think you should let me solve it.” Tavian said as he handed his radio back to me, the seriousness of the last hour finally giving way to the beginning of a grin.

“You were standing on a terrace.” I reminded Tavian as I returned the handset to its charger, giving him a skeptical look.

“I did that extremely well.” Tavian replied, his expression perfectly sincere as though he'd performed a highly specialized service.

“I'll put it in the official report.” I told Tavian, earning a laugh from him as he dropped into one of the chairs.

By the time we settled around the long table again, warm air had thickened through the open shutters, carrying the smell of damp vegetation into the cooler stone room. Tavian tipped his chair onto its back legs until Malek glanced toward the floor beneath him, and the front legs returned quietly to the stone without our Head Alpha needing to say a word. We sat there for several minutes without talking, the comfortable silence stretching between us until Tavian finally looked down at the cup he was turning slowly between both hands.

“What happens when her assignment ends?” Tavian asked, his earlier humor disappearing beneath a question all three of us had thought about and none of us had solved.

Malek went still, and cedar sharpened around him before his face showed much of anything. There was the problem we couldn't fix with a radio, another trip around the boundary, or something I could repair with my hands.

“She leaves.” Malek answered Tavian, his voice controlled even as his fingers tightened once around the cup.

“For now.” I added quietly, watching his grip loosen without the rest of the tension leaving his shoulders.