Chapter b265 /b

ra’s POV

“Say it again,” I told Eden, keeping my voice even. “Slow.”

He didn’t blink. “The patrol found a courier on the north ridge an hour ago. Dead. No scent markers. But he was carrying this.”

He slid a sealed envelope across the map table. Dark wax. Clean fold. No crest.

Cael leaned against the window, arms folded, watching me instead of the letter. “Open it.”

I broke the seal and pulled out a single sheet. Four lines. No signature.

-Your alliance will bleed from the inside.

– The training grounds at Direstone Keep have been mapped.

-Your schedules are known.

– Ask the shoeless girl.

I stared at thest line. Ask the girl with bare feet.

“Subtle,” Vessa said, jaw tight. “She means Mi.”

“Or someone wants us to think that,” Cael replied, pushing off the ss. “Anyone can write a taunt.”

Eden tapped the corner of the note. “Water marks. See them?”

I tilted the paper toward the light. A faint ghost of lines crossed the page, like it had rested on top of another sheet while someone wrote something else.

“Impressions,” I said. “Get me a graphite stick.”

Eden handed one over. Iid the sheet on a clean pad and shaded over the empty spaces, gentle, even strokes. Slowly, letters surfaced like bones under thin skin.

Direstone trail

Bridge post

South gate

–

noonb. /b

– two guards.

-blind between bells.

Cael stepped closer. “That’s our internal drill sheet.”

b“/bYesterday’s,” Eden added. “It never left this room.”

I kept shading. More letters climbed out of paper and light.

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– Deliver the copy to Garron.

–

Payment on return.

Use the blue ribbon.

My hand stilled. The graphite stick rolled to a stop.

Vessa whispered, “You have got to be kidding me.”

I set the paper down. The room was suddenly too small. Air too sharp.

Cael’s voice turned softer. “ra.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “We knew there was a leak. Now we know who they trust to move things.”

“Garron,” Eden muttered. “He’s bold, but not stupid. He wouldn’t put his name on—”

“He wouldn’t need to,” I said. “He’d use someone he can bait or break.”.

“That could be anyone,” Vessa said.

“Not anyone,” I replied, turning the note over. “Blue ribbon.”

Cael frowned. “Meaning?”

(7),

55 vouchers

“Meaning she wraps everything with it,” I said. “Letters. Gifts. Her hair, when she wants attention. Mi never changes the act, she just changes the audience.”

Cael’s mouth pulled into a grim line. “We take her in now.”

“No,” I said quickly. “We watch first. We let the rope get tight enough that she can’t slip out when we pull.”

Eden nodded. “Trap and trace.”

Cael paced once, thinking. “n it.”

“Tonight,” I said. “After drills. We’ll send out a fake schedule with a single blind spot on the south ridge. Same phrase from the impressions. Same time. If the leak bites, we catch the hand off.”

“And if it isn’t her?i” /iVessa asked.

“Then I apologize,” I said. “Loudly. In front of everyone.”

Cael looked at me for a beat too long. “You don’t owe her anything.”

“I owe myself precision,” I said. “That’s different.”

He exhaled through his nose, then nodded. “Fine. Eden, prepare the decoy sheet. Vessa, pick a shadow team.”

“I want five,” Vessa said. “Silent, fastb, /bno egos.”

b11:49 Wed/bb, /bbSep /bb24 /b

“Take six,” Cael replied. “I don’t like the taste of that note.”

“Seven,” I said, folding the page. “I’m the seventh.”

Cael opened his mouth. Closed it. “Of course you are.”

Vessa smirked. “Like I’d try to stop her.”

Eden collected the evidence. “I’ll dust the seal for prints anyway.”

“Do it,” I said, already turning for the door.

Cael caught my wrist. “Eat something first.”

“I’ll snack when I’m watching her lie,” I said.

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He didn’t smile. He just looked at me the way he did when I walked into a storm–equal parts pride and

worry.

“Don’t get cut,” he said.

“Then don’t get in the way,” I answered, softer than I meant to.

The training fields at dusk looked like a painting someone had scraped with a knife. Orange light on steel. Dust on boots. Breath in the cool air.

I ran split drills with my squad until the burn in my legs matched the noise in my head. Punch, pivot. Elbow, break. Drop, rise. Again.

“Gamma,” Jace said, jogging up. “Message for you.”

He passed me a folded scrap tied with–of course–blue ribbon.

I untied it without looking rattled. Two words only: South ridge.

I stuffed it into my pocket and sent the squad for water. Vessa fell into step beside me as I walked off the field.

“She made a move,” she said.

“She thinks it’s hers,” I replied. “Let’s not disappoint.”

We split our seven into staggered pairs. Vessa took the high trees with two. Eden’s shadows took the brush below the ridge’s spine. Jace and Mira ghosted the southern bend. I took the dark ditch that hugged the old bridge footing, where roots wed at stone.

Cael wasn’t with us. He’d agreed to stay back and keep Thorne pinned with council logistics. If Thorne knew, he’d bring a knife and a lecture. I didn’t want either.

Crickets. Wind. The faint metal ring of a bell from the far camp–on the minute, then the quarter. I watched

b11:49 /bbWed/bb, /bbSep /bb24 /b

the seconds crawl bacross /bthe face of my watch.

Footsteps. Light. A whisper of perfume.

:

Bare feet on old dirt. A small hiss when something sharp bit skin.

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Mi stepped into the break between the bell’s tolls, hood up, dress hidden under a long cloak. She looked over her shoulder twice, then crouched near the bridge post.

Another figure slid out from the brush opposite her–too lean to be Garron. The height was wrong. The stance was wrong. But the confidence? The easy way he leaned against the old stones? That felt familiar.

The man didn’t speak. He held out his hand.

Mi unrolled a parchment and passed it over. Blue ribbon shed in the moonlight.

I raised two fingers. Vessa’s shadow shifted in the tree. Eden’s team flexed, but stayed put. Not yet.

The man read long enough to make me itch. Then he nodded and reached into his coat.

Payment on return.

Mi extended a trembling palm. He didn’t put coins in it.

He gave her a ring. Heavy. Si. Old.

She froze. “You said-”

“Wear it,” the man said. His voice was low, even. “Then you’ll get the rest.”

“I don’t-”

“Wear it,” he repeated. Not quite a threat. Not quite not.

She slid it on, jaw clenched. “Will he know?”

“If he’s still watching you,” the man said, “he’ll know you chose a side.”

Her chin lifted. “bI /balready did.”

“Good,” he said. He tucked the parchment away and turned as if he’d dissolve back into leaves.

I moved.

One step. Two. I was on him by three. My arm locked his shoulder, my knee took his leg. He went down hard.

“Don’t moveb,/bb” /bbI /bsaid.

He tried. I pressed harder. Something in his knee popped. He grunted, still not shouting.

Mi screamed. “ra!”

b11:50 /bWed, bSep /bb24 /b

…

bVessa /bdropped from the branch like a knife. Eden’s pair came out of the brush, des low.

The man kept his face turned away. Smart. Useless.

I grabbed his hair and yanked his head to the side.

“Show me,” I said.

He did.

Not Garron.

Justin.

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Thorne’s Beta. Quiet where Garron was loud. Courteous where Garron was crude. Always two steps behind his Alpha, always two steps ahead of trouble.

“Evening, Gamma,” he said calmly, as if we were sharing tea. Sweat slicked his temple. “You’re lighter on your feet than thest time we crossed paths.”

“Then you’re slower,” I replied, breath steady. “How many schedules have

“Enough,” he said.

“For who?b” /b

you

moved?b” /b

“For the same people who left you for dead,” he said, eyes cutting toward Mi. “Different doorway. Same house.”

“Cute line,” Vessa muttered, digging a knee into his spine.

Mi backed away, hands shaking. The ring caught what little light there was, throwing a cold re across her fingers.

I held out my hand. “Give me the parchment.”

Justin smiled. “You’ll catch more if you let the first go home.”

“You’re not bait,” I said. “You’re a de. des don’t swim off on their own.”

He shrugged against the dirt as if it didn’t matter either way. “Then we’ll both bleed.”

Eden’s hand closed on the pocket where he’d stashed the parchment. He slipped it out and passed it to me. I

read fast.

It was the decoy sheet we’d nted.

South gate blind between bells.

Bridge post two guards.

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Ridge at noon.

:

But there was a new line at the bottom. A name.

–

Deliver north copy to Orik.

:

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My mouth went dry. I felt it anyway. I forced the words out.

“Orik,” I said. “As in my father.”

Justin didn’t blink. “As in the man who told everyone you were a burden.”

Vessa swore under her breath. Eden’s jaw flinched.

My hands didn’t shake. Not yet. I folded the paper. Slid it into my jacket.

“Why move schedules for rogues?” I asked. “Why sell us out to the same dogs who carve up your bordersb?/bb” /b

“Because borders change,” Justin said. “Power changes. Men who pay on time don’t.”

“You’re not poor,” Vessa snapped. “You’re not starving.”

“Everyone’s starving for something,” he said. “You, for example, starve for anyone to listen when you say

stop.

Vessa smiled without humor. “Talk again and I’ll put you to sleep.”

Mi edged closer to the path, like the thin moonlight there might swallow her. “Justin, tell them it’s a joke. Tell them it’s ia /itest. Please.”

He nced at her ring. “You brought the ribbon.”

“Because you told me-”

“Because you wanted to matter,” he corrected. “You wanted to be seen choosing.”

“I chose us,” she said, desperate now. “Direstone. You. Thorne.”

Justin’s calm finally cracked. He looked at me then, and for a moment the mask slid.

“Thorne doesn’t get to be hurt again because he loved the wrong woman,” he said quietly. “Not by you. Not by anyone.”

“Then why did you sell his drills?” I asked, colder than the water below us. “Why did you stitch holes in his

walls?”

“Because he won’t step away until the fire kisses him,” Justin said. “So I brought the me closer. He’ll leave the alliance. He’ll take what’s his and cut ties. He’ll live.”

“By burning bus/bb?/bb” /bbVessa /bspat.

11:50 Wedb, /bbSep /b24

“By surviving,” he said.

:

I stared at him. At Mi. At the ring that didn’t fit her finger.

“Take him.” I told Eden.

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Eden nodded. Two shadows hauled Justin up and pinned his arms, efficient, unkind. Vessa pped a gag across his mouth. He didn’t fight it.

Mi held out both hands to me like a child begging for candy. “ra, please–I didn’t–I thought he was testing my loyalty. I thought he was protecting us. If I help you now, will you-”

“You’lle,” I said, turning away. “You’ll talk. And you’ll pray there’s a thread of truth in you that doesn’t snap when we pull.”

She started sobbing. I didn’t slow.

We moved back toward camp in silence–roots, stone, breath, the faint ng of the distant bell again. Between tolls, the night felt thinner than paper.

Cael waited at the edge of the training field, shoulders squared, eyes dark. He saw Justin between our guards, saw Mi’s hands shaking, saw my face, and didn’t ask the easy questions.

“Who else?” he said.

“Orik,” I answered. “At least in writing.”

Cael went bso /bstill the air around him tightened. “We don’t move on a name with no body.”

“We don’t sleep on it either,” I said. “Lock Justin in the inner cells. Keep him away from themon block. No visitors. And put Mi in the bronze room. Window slit only. Two she–wolves at the door.”

Mi’s head snapped up. “You can’t-”

“I can.” I said.

Vessa touched my elbow. “What about Thorne?”

“He learns from me,” I said. “Not from a rumor.”

Cael nodded once. “I’ll send for him.”

“No,” I said. “I’ll go.”

He searched my face. “Alone?”

“I need him to hear it clean,” I said. “No noise. No crowd.”

Cael didn’t like it. He sighed anyway. “Take the west corridor. He’s still in the council room.”

I started walking. The bcamp /blights threw long shadows across the stone. The paper in my pocket felt heavier

than iron.

Halfway to the door, I heard boots behind me. Thorne’s. Of course.

“Gamma,” he called. “We need to talk.”

I stopped. Turned.

“Good,” I said. “So do I.”

E 55

b11:50 /bbWed/bb, /bbSep /bb24 /b

bChapter /bb266 /b