Page 174 of Dark Night of the Soul

“And while I’d like to sit here all day and discuss how appealing that is, we have to move,” he continued.

I let the comment slide because he was right. Ludwig’s appreciation of her capability didn’t bother me anymore. He’d earned the right to see what she was.

“I know.”

“They’ll canvas the radius,” he continued. “Hospitals. Pharmacies. Anyone who made a call in the last twelve hours.”

I closed my eyes once. Briefly. The exhaustion pulled at me, but I pushed through it.

“So, we move,” I said. “How soon?”

“Not soon enough. You can’t yet. It might kill you. And she’ll never forgive that,” he said. “Ulrich is securing a new place. As soon as it’s done, we go.”

“Fine. But get in touch with Silas and tell him what’s going on.”

“Silas?” He sounded surprised. “You brought him into this?”

“He brought himself into it. He’s the reason—” I stopped talking. Ludwig didn’t know anything about the hospital or her alteration.

“The reason for what?”

Some things weren’t mine to share. But this—Ludwig needed to know.

I didn’t answer right away. “It’s a long story.”

He looked at his watch. Then gave me a pointed look. “We have plenty of time to kill.”

So, I told him. All of it. From the moment Silas showed up, to her abduction and alteration, to breaking out of Bagras to the surveillance—the full story. I’d only given him necessary pieces before. When I finished, he said nothing. His face devoid of emotion. Processing. Calculating what it meant.

Then, “Fuck. You should have told me sooner.”

His jaw was tight. Angry—not at me. At what had been done to her.

“Probably.”

“Now this is more serious than I thought.”

“Right,” I agreed.

Ludwig stood. “Get some rest. We move in forty-eight hours or less.”

“Tell Ulrich I want the route mapped before we go.”

“Already done.” He headed toward the door, paused. “For what it’s worth? She’s good for you. Makes you less…” He searched for the word.

“Less what?”

He grinned. “Ill-tempered.”

The door closed behind him.

I lay there in the silence, feeling the pull of the stitches with every breath.

She’d walked into my world without asking permission. Threatened my people. Held my life in her blood-covered hands. Refused to break when everything said she should.

Ludwig was right.

She wasn’t only with me.