“But if he’s seen the Brand,” she pressed.
“If he’s seen mine,” Alaric said, voice contained, “and then sees yours, he’ll connect it. I’ll deal with that personally. He won’t tell anyone else.”
Sera nodded slowly.Her mind started working the way it always did when she was stressed. Systems. Inputs. Outputs. Threat models.”The Brand on your palm,” she said. “It’s on mine too. That means it can’t be hidden by clothing.”
“No,” he agreed.
“And it reacts,” she continued. “Which means it could flare at the wrong moment. In a meeting. In an elevator. In front of someone who knows what it is.”
“That’s why I stopped earlier.”
Sera’s breath caught. “Because you think you can manipulate it when it flares?”
“I think I can reducetriggers,” hesaid.
“And sex is a trigger?”
His eyes darkened. “Yes.”
Sera’s pulse accelerated at the way he said it, like it wasn’t moral. It was tactical.Her stomach tightened.She looked at him and saw it clearly.Alaric wanted her.He also wanted to keep her alive.He’d chosen the second as if it automatically overruled the first.Sera forced herself to speak through the ache.”Then we need a plan.”
He nodded once. “We already have one. Contain. Compartmentalize. Keep the circle small.”
Sera’s gaze narrowed. “And pretend it’s possible.”
His eyes sharpened. “It is possible.”
Sera held his stare. “For how long?”
A beat.
Alaric’s voice went quieter. “Long enough to find out who’s trying to eliminate you and whoever stole the file.”
Sera’s throat tightened. “You think whoever probed my access will escalate?”
“I think they already have.”
Sera’s mind jumped to the missing sealed archive, the one detail she’d been circling without naming. Herstomach dropped hard.”The death-trigger packet,” she said. “The one designed to release automatically if your father died. If Bjorn doesn’t make it, that file was supposed to open.”
Alaric’s expression went still. Not blank. Not defensive. Simply arrested, as if the words had locked something in place inside him.”Yes,” hesaid.
Sera exhaled slowly, forcing her breathing to stay even while her thoughts began to stack, one consequence on top of another. “It’s still missing.”
“I know.”
The quiet certainty in his voice tightened something in her chest. “And you don’t know what was in it?”
Alaric held her gaze. He didn’t evade the question. He didn’t soften it. He simply didn’t denyit.
The implications rippled outward. “Do you think it was stolen?” Sera asked carefully, already bracing for the answer. “That someone wants to use it?”
Alaric’s eyes narrowed, focus sharpening rather than wavering. “I think it was erased.”
The word landed hard. Sera’s skin tightened, achill skating down her spine. “That shouldn’t be possible.”
“It was possible,” he corrected. “Which means it was planned.”
Her thoughts accelerated, patterns snapping into place. “If it was erased cleanly,” she said slowly, “that implies someone knew it existed. Not suspected. Knew.”
