lea'

Panic was a wild bird beating against my ribs, bu

sual, as if sneaking around a guard

ou star

rmur. He didn't move from the tree. "It's a la

ered my l

m the capital. She can't possibly face the Alpha without it. She was desperate." I lowered my voice to a conspiratorial

ching his face. Flims

ed on his lips, but didn't quite reach his eyes. His ga

dn't call

at's important. But climbing the wall is foolis

ee and beckoned. "Th

de the thick curtain of leaves, revealing a section of stone that didn't match the rest. He pressed a speci

. "What

n used in decades. Leads out to th

out this? The question screamed in my min

nd held it aloft, warm light flickering on his fac

g it. His grip was warm and strong. He

s a quarter-mile from the walls.

hat way. Be q

the trees, running toward the abandoned

ng into shadows. We spoke in low, u

the capital. Use it as a front. Buy property, bribe officials. I want ears in every grea

absolute. "It wil

d as silently

eared the secret entrance, I saw a lone figure wai

t. He had every reason to turn me in, t

laxed. "Did you get it?" Light tone,

prop I'd bought from a night-stall in to

ile returned, this time reaching his eyes. It made hi

narrow space. By the time we reached the gardens, the moon was h

anything I'd ever known. But as the cold stone walls closed in around me again, the weight of my c

lingering on my face for a moment longer than

slipped back into the shadows of the fortress, my heart still racing from the night's work.

t beginning to bleed across the eastern mo