felt like a rope tight

hifted in their seat, the leather creaking loud enough to make me flinch, and I understood in

My voice came out steadier than I f

very particular reaction when they encounter something significant. A change in breathing. A stillness. Sometimes words they can't help themselves saying out loud." Hi

w went tight in a way that had nothing to do with me, some old grie

inal. The same tone he'd used on Silas, except this time

Nothing exists in isolation. Not your father's disappearance. Not your brother's temper. And certainly not whate

her stillness had shifted - less predatory now, more searching, like s

cost either of us if it reached this table before he'd decided what to do with it. I thought, too, of every version of myself I'd had to become in the span of a single day - the girl who'd folde

th, almost convincing even to my own ears. "I'd been traveling for hour

ng enough that I felt

me. "Wonderful. A girl who can lie with a straight face. Kane, you m

e offered before it was even needed, and I saw the flicker of somethi

ate, cataloging. "Interesting, how quickly you came to

g around whatever they'd just decided they'd witnessed, and understood that my lie hadn't protected any

forward to seeing how the debt payment settles into pack life." His eyes found mine one last time, and whatever warmth had briefly touched h

moment the door closed behind him. Briar lingered a moment longer, eyes still on me, something un

ood there in a dress that felt less like armor now and more like a target painted directly onto my back. My hands had begun to shake, small and in

e enough to speak without being overheard, h

was re

protect

way, fingers curling instead into a fist that fell back to his side. "Magnus doesn't forget things. He doesn't let thin

e does,

d me. "When he does, he won't come after me first. He'll come after you. Because breaking me apart means findin

old a room full of strangers who wanted me broken open for information. Kane hadn't meant to say it. I could see that in the way his jaw ti

hadows of the corridor, arms crossed, expression unreadable, close enough that I couldn