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I inhale through my nose, tasting smoke that isn’t there.

“I’m calling Liam.”

“It’s five in the morning,” Reese says.

“I don’t care if it’s his birthday,” I say. “He’ll answer.”

I take my phone out and dial before anyone can argue. My hand shakes with anger that has nowhere else to go.

Liam picks up on the third ring, his voice thick with sleep.

“Edwin? What is it?”

“We’re in the ritual chamber. Get down here now.”

He pauses, taking a breath.

“Is she—”

“She’s alive,” I cut in, and my chest loosens as I say it out loud. “But the vote was rigged.”

Silence.

Then his voice turns sharp. “Stay where you are. Don’t touch anything.”

“Too late,” Marcus mutters.

“I’ll be there,” Liam says and hangs up.

While we wait, I stare at the scale. The irony of its injustice slaps me in the face. All that ceremony wasted.

Zaiya shifts closer, her shoulder brushing my arm. “We’re gonna be okay.”

She looks up at me with eyes too knowing for someone who used to hide behind politeness. She’s wearing my shirt like a minidress and my leather jacket over it, refusing to change into anything else.

Comforting me should not be her burden. Not after what she’s gone through tonight. Or the past month, for that matter.

I pull her against my chest and wrap my good arm around her. “This isn’t over until Patrick is dead.”

Reese watches us without saying a word. He doesn’t have to. I know what he’s thinking.

Don’t lose it now.

Eventually, footsteps echo down the corridor.

Liam arrives first, jacket thrown over his wrinkled clothes like he dressed in a hurry. Two Councilmen follow him in. Gregory Sarris and Barret Alcott. Neither bothered to get out of their pajamas. They don’t look pleased to be summoned again after assuming the hard part was over.

Zaiya inhales sharply.

She stares at the senator, and he offers her a calm nod. It must make sense to her now why her father insisted she marry Alcott’s son. A direct line to Serpentium Order resources.

Liam’s gaze goes straight to Zaiya with a gentleness that’s out of place down here. The mess of her is expected. Seeing her alive still isn’t.

Then he turns to me.

“Show us.”

Marcus resets the scale demonstration. One stone right. One stone left. The left sinks again.