Page 114 of Twist of Fate

Gomez fell into step beside him. “Pretty sure discussing your feelings would be useful too.”

“No.”

“For the record, that’s exactly what someone who needs to discuss his feelings would say.”

Their voices followed Tyson down the corridor. Connal went with them, holding tightly to the distinction Gomez had forced him to see. Luke had trusted Connal to understand.

Connal would honor that trust, even when every instinct demanded that he claw his way out of the Unseelie and stand at his mate’s side. Preparing for the moment Luke might need him was the only thing holding Connal together.

Keir and Zer arrived shortly after they reached the armory, summoned at Connal’s order. Avaneel peered through the strands of Zer’s hair, her tiny face unusually solemn. The gargoyles joined them as well, prepared to take their place in whatever force Connal assembled.

Connal looked over the gathered warriors. Every one of them was ready to follow him into the human realm without question.

For now, there was nowhere to go.

“Prepare your weapons,” he ordered. “Tyson is gathering what we need to reach Luke if the situation changes.”

Tyson left the armory to coordinate his human contacts while the others prepared. Connal finished sharpening every blade he carried, then began again. Eventually, Gomez started twitching with each scrape of metal across the whetstone.

When Tyson returned, he carried blueprints and the information his contacts had gathered about the Hale office building: entrances, exits, security points, underground service access, and routes to the roof. Human observers were already in position, under strict orders to watch and report without intervening.

Tyson spread the blueprints across a worktable. Connal set aside the whetstone, although his fingers immediately itched to resume the soothing draw of metal over stone. He understood the observers’ purpose. He simply hated that they could do nothing more than watch the building and wait for the situation to change.

The blueprints might as well have been written in a foreign language. “We need to stop staring at paper and go to my mate.”

The words came out sharper than he intended. Everyone around the table looked up, but Connal could not summon any regret. Every moment they spent planning was another moment Luke traveled farther away from him.

Before Zer could respond, Gomez moved to Connal’s side. “Look.”

He tapped the portion of the blueprint showing the front entrance.

“What am I looking at?” Connal demanded.

“The way Luke will go inside.”

“You cannot know that.”

“Sure I can. Hale knows him. If Luke sneaks into the building, he tells Hale something is wrong before he learns anything useful.” Gomez traced a finger from the entrance toward the bank of lifts marked near the center of the page. “He’ll walk through the front door like he belongs there, because he does. Then he’ll watch how everyone reacts.”

Tyson placed a marker beside the entrance. “His most likely destination is Hale’s office.”

“And he’ll know how to get out again,” Gomez said. “Luke counts exits without realizing he’s doing it. He notices cameras, weapons, people who don’t fit. He probably knows more about that building than anyone who actually works there.”

“He works there,” Connal pointed out.

“You know what I mean.”

Asterius leaned over the table, studying the maze of lines. “If Luke enters here and Hale’s office is on the upper floor, we need more than one route to reach him.”

“We have three,” Tyson said. He indicated each in turn. “The main entrance, the underground parking structure, and the service access. The observers will watch all three.”

“And when they see Luke?” Connal asked.

“They continue watching.”

The answer scraped across Connal’s nerves more harshly than the whetstone.

“We know where he is going,” Connal said. “We have a route to reach him. Waiting serves no purpose.”