“Wraith will want answers,” Ash counters.
“Yes.”
“And if good ol’ Saint and Ash disappear into the night without a word, they’ll know something’s off,” I add.
Rook steps closer, his presence filling the space like gravity. “Let them.”
I hold his gaze. “You’re playing a dangerous long game.”
“I always do,” he answers with a smirk.
There it is—theKing. Calculation, and the crown beneath the mask.
“She’s already in motion,” he continues. “Whether she knows it or not. If we take this, she changes. If we leave it, she stays exactly who she is.”
Ash folds his arms. “And who is that?”
Rook’s eyes flick back to the drive. “A problem.” Then to the window, like even he can’t quite decide what she’ll be. “A potential.”
The word settles heavy in my chest. “You’re going to pretend we never found it,” I say.
“Yes.”
“And if she retrieves it?” Ash asks.
Rook’s smile is slow. Unpleasant. Beautiful in its precision. “Then she walks straight into my arms.”
Ash exhales through his nose. “You enjoy this way too much.”
Rook does not answer, which is answer enough. I step back, nodding once. “We’ll return it.”
“Good,” Rook says. “Quietly. And you won’t tell the others.”
Ash hesitates. Just a fraction. Then he says, “They won’t like this.”
Rook meets his gaze. “I don’t lead by popularity.”
There is a pause where we all look at one another, testing where loyalty lies. Then I smile. Soft. Dangerous. Devout. “Of course you don’t.”
We turn to leave. When we stop at the door, Rook speaks again. “Saint.”
I turn and glance at him. He looks at me, expression inscrutinable. “Watch her.”
I incline my head. “Always.”
Because now I understand. This is not a hunt. It’s a courtship.
And Ember Calloway has no idea the throne is already being built around her.
Chapter 18
Ember
The house hums quieter after a meeting. It’s the kind of quiet that comes from men pretending they haven’t just been sharpening knives. They’ve been whispering most of this morning, hushed voices that spell a certain trouble. I can feel it in my bones—in thewalls— the static, the way the air carries their tension like perfume.
They think I don’t notice, but I do. They’re hiding something.
By the time I step into the main room, only two remain. Vale and Wraith.
