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At the Lyccan prince's nod, Alain stepped forward to take over. "While surveillance footage by our spies did confirm Ivy's presence at the site, the ease in which such footage was obtained was also similarly suspicious or questionable at the very least. The possibility of this means that we either had another traitor in our midst or one of our spies' covers was blown. For this, we approached the Moretti pack to launch a parallel investigation into the matter."
"Observe, do not engage. Retreat if necessary. Those were my exact rules for the Lyccans we've assigned to the job," Alessandro enumerated, "and we've made it explicitly clear that they were only to join in the action and offer aid if and when either Alain or Aluin Fournier requests for it."
The debriefing ended several minutes later, and as the soldiers filed out, Estrella found herself alone with her brothers and the Fournier twins in the war room.
"Estrella..."
It was the first time Domenico had directly addressed her since her return, and she unconsciously tensed. "Yes?" Save for a brief glance at the telltale marks of tears on her face, her big brother had only welcomed her back with a nod when she arrived at the family compound and told him her marriage to Lysander was over.
"What do you wish us to do?"
Estrella was stunned and confused. "You're asking m-me?"
"Who else is more uniquely qualified? You are my sister, thus a princess of this pack. But you also wear the crown of the Faes. It must be you who'd decide if our pack members are to join in this fight...and for what purpose."
Oh. All at once, she realized that Domenico had already figured out what went down between her and Lysander - and Fina, too. He had always had the uncanny knack of analyzing and deducing things, and now he was putting that skill of his to give her a choice.
Did she want to take revenge and have the Lyccans act exactly as Fina had so brazenly lied about? Tonight's offensive wasn't just about capturing Ivy. It was also to show the Faes' strength to the L'Alliance and disabuse the world of any notions about their race being an easy target.
If the Lyccans were to join in, she could use her pack's strength to defeat both vampires and make the Faes appear weak and ineffective.
"Let our spies remain and keep an eye on the battlefield," Estrella said finally. "Unless the tide drastically turns against Ly-—against their favor, it's best that they win this on their own merit."
Domenico simply nodded. "It shall be as you wish—-"
The doors to the war room suddenly burst open. "Your Highness," the soldier gasped. "We've captured one of the vampires—-"
They all came running out, but by the time they made it to the gates, it was too late, and the vampire had already killed himself with poison.
Domenico swore under his breath. Vampires used to be low-functioning monsters, unable to think of anything beyond sucking the blood out of their victims. But ever since Danilo had taken over, the vampires had changed. They had started acting smarter—-
What the hell?
Estrella had suddenly dropped to her knees as she started doing a body check on the vampire's corpse. "Remember when I fought against them at the Miller Mine, I told you all about scraps of papers we found in their pockets?"
Aluin frowned. "They were nothing but torn pieces of receipt—-"
"I still have them with me," Estrella answered without looking up. "I've analyzed them in every way. Tried to see if there was any hidden message until I realized those papers weren't meant to be seen. They were—-" Estrella stopped speaking when she finally found what she was looking for: a scrap of plastic this time, torn out from what could've been a coffee cup.
"They were meant to be sensed in a different way," she said shakily as she rose to her feet. She held the scrap out to Domenico, who was probably the only one among them whose abilities to hunt by smell could match the newly strengthened powers of vampires.
Domenic bent his head. "Vampire blood. His, I take it?"
Estrella nodded. "But there's something else." She watched her older brother frown as he attempted to take another whiff.
The Lyccan prince reared back a moment later as recognition struck. Shit. His head jerked up. "The second scent...it belongs to the spymaster."
The Fournier brothers appeared stunned, and Alain said slowly, "I will be the first one to admit that Fina is many things, but to suggest that she's betrayed us—-"
Estrella quickly shook her head. "It's not that, but I'll explain on the way. We need to get to where Lysander and the others are before it's too late."
With people's lives on the line, no other questions were asked. Domenico had his younger brothers rally all the able packmates they could find to join them while the Fournier brothers instructed their men to get ready.
