Page 131 of Dark Night of the Soul

That changed the rules.

Vormund had been a weapon. Munich was the factory. And Sebastian—Sebastian was a man who believed consequence wouldn’t find him, because he never held the knife himself. He had men like Vormund to do the cutting while he stayed clean.

Because love, I was beginning to understand, wasn’t protection.

It made you visible.

And Anna was no longer visible. She was central.

Which meant this couldn’t be about keeping her hidden anymore. It had to be about ending the people who believed they were entitled to her existence.

I didn’t tell her that yet.

I only tightened my grip on the back of her chair—steady, present—while inside I began dismantling a war I’d hoped never to start.

I’d gone after men like Sebastian before.

They always thought they were indestructible. Insulated by their own arrogance and layers of belief systems and people willing to die in their place.

I’d ended them, anyway.

But this was different.

I wasn’t acting to preserve balance or prevent some catastrophic event or fulfill some ancient obligation masquerading as oaths and obedience.

This time it was personal.

And that was unsettling.

Because I was willing to walk the moral line. And that made me ruthless. I was willing to annihilate anyone in my path to get to the one man who claimed ownership.

And I would.

I would go after Sebastian. Not now. Not recklessly. But soon.

And when I did there would be no room for misunderstanding. He’d know who was coming for him and why. He’d know he’d never live to see the other side of me again. He’d know I’d kill him with my bare hands if I had to.

Whatever I became in the end, I would accept.

Because if the world was determined to take pieces of her, then it would learn—brutally—what making me choose unleashed.

I’d already chosen.

Everything else was aftermath.

She was quiet, still, her mind working. Then, “Someone had access.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

“Not once. But many times. Someone with keys or codes or a way around the wards,” she said. “But this isn’t about demons and high lords. So probably not the wards. This is about… proximity. Repeat access. And time. Enough time to place that many devices.”

She was working through it. Turning inward as she assembled the pieces. Pieces she didn’t need me or Silas to lock into place.

Her hand tightened around her glass, her nail beds leeching of color. “Who?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“Not anyone we know.”