been a p

and catalogued everything she heard. Distant voices, low and indistinct. Footsteps on ston

back for her

and sat in it until exhaustion pulled her under somewhere around the third ho

up and t

bindings were gone. Removed while she slept. She had not heard anyone enter. That mattered. It meant

le

and frightened that she was keeping in a locke

stle with no phone, no money, no l

nd went to

gate were sparring and she watched them for a long time because the way they moved was wrong in a specific, useful way. Too fast. Too fluid. Antic

ions of the two men at the inner door. Measured th

stupid. She fil

kn

, because silence f

as careful and composed, carrying a tray that smelled of coffee and something warm beneath a clot

own without being asked. "

her move. "How long

vivid. Another one who wasn't entirely wh

pened thi

ll send for you. An hour. Maybe less." She

ithout turning. "What shoul

of real

Mara said quietly.

closed be

e middle of the

h

ritatingly good, rich and dark and exactly the right temperature, and she hated it because it made

Comfort was a cage

ore time and looked at the gate and the too-fast men a

her shoulders. Lifted her chin to the angle that had

ame forty m

Charged in a way she felt against her skin before it ev

erself. Small t

with that quiet assessing look she was already starting to recog

ght and her hands loose at her sides

look back

ly direction that