Page 6 of Legacy Ascended

Frances glances at the untouched water, then at the note on the sweater.

“You are home,” he says. “I know you don’t believe that yet.”

“The locked door says otherwise.”

“Until you understand the danger waiting for you outside this valley, I can’t let you leave.”

I stare at him.

“Are you fucking serious?”

Frances doesn’t move.

"You dragged me off a road, shot my security detail, put four darts in me, and locked me in this room. What exactly did you think would happen when I woke up? That I’d read your little note and thank you?”

“No.”

“You claim your family serves mine. People who serve my family don’t shoot me. They don’t hurt my friends. They don’t tie me up and decide I’m too stupid to know whether I’m safe.”

“We didn’t think you were stupid.”

“You decided my answer didn’t matter. What else would you call it?”

Frances takes the anger without looking away. “We believed the Council was leading you into a trap.”

“Then you warn me. You call me. You show me whatever proof you have. You don’t become the fucking trap.”

“Would you have believed us?”

“That was my choice to make.”

He looks at the blood spreading through the gauze at my side. “Yes.”

“Don’t agree with me like that fixes anything.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Then tell me exactly what you ordered.”

Frances pulls out the chair beside the table and sits. “My people were supposed to take you en route to the archive appointment and bring you here.”

“So you planned to kidnap me.”

“Yes.”

The answer hits harder because he doesn’t hide from it.

“And you prepared for me to fight.”

“We knew you might shift.”

“You showed up with a net and enough tranquilizer to drop a bear. Those darts weren’t an accident. You planned this.”

“We planned to restrain you without seriously injuring you.”

“You nearly stopped my heart.”

“That was never supposed to happen.”