“You’d just be moving the center point,” Rafe says. “The pattern would follow.”
I take a deep breath, shift my focus. “Can you break what he built into me? Remove his influence?”
The room goes still. Lyanna’s expression tells me everything.
“No,” she says finally. “Not without—“
“Killing me,” I finish for her. “Got it.”
I straighten, pull back from the table.
“If I’m the center of his web,” I say, “then I control where he focuses. Not him. Next breach hits, I’m walking through it,” I state.
Dane finally speaks, his voice low and hard. “You’re planning to draw him out.”
I meet his eyes. “No. I’m planning to hunt him down.”
Dane’s eyes narrow at my words. Not quite disapproval, yet. More like suspicion—the strategic kind. The Alpha calculating risks.
“With what resources?” he asks, each word measured. “Against a royal fae who’s had centuries to prepare?”
I tap the map between us, circling the breach points with my finger.
“These aren’t just weak spots. They’re doorways—tuned to his energy signature.” My voice stays clinical, detached. “The next time one opens, I’ll follow the thread back to him.”
“That’s suicide,” Dane says flatly.
“It’s exactly what he expects,” I counter. “And that’s why it’ll work.”
I move around the table, taking ownership of the space. This isn’t their operation anymore. It’s mine. It always has been; I just didn’t know it.
“He built me to channel realm energy.” I trace the pattern on the map. “But channels work both ways. When he pulls, I push. When he opens a breach, I track the signature.”
Lyanna steps forward, concern etched across her face. “I could shield you with ward-weaving. At least dampen the connection.”
I shake my head. “No shields. I need the connection clear and open. That’s how I find him.”
“And when you do?” Dane asks, arms crossed now.
“I’ll know where he is. What he’s planning. And how to stop it.”
Rafe watches me with unnerving stillness. He hasn’t shifted position since I entered the room.
“If you move, he moves,” Rafe says finally. “That’s how we catch him.”
Exactly. I nod once in his direction, acknowledging the support.
Dane runs a hand through his hair, frustration breaking through his control. “And what happens when he realizes what you’re doing? When he turns your own tracking against you?”
“He won’t,” I say with absolute certainty. “He thinks I’m unaware. Blind to what I am.” I look each of them in the eye. “His mistake.”
I pull the map toward me, folding it with practiced precision. “The next breach will hit within forty-eight hours, based on the pattern. When it does, I go alone.”
“Like hell,” Dane snaps, stepping forward. He moves into my space with predatory intent, close enough that I have to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. The heat radiating off his body reaches me even through the space between us. His scent of pine and barely leashed aggression fills my nostrils.
Those steel-gray eyes bore into mine with an intensity that would make most wolves submit. Not me.
“This is my territory. That means the consequences fall on my pack. Not just you.”
