I rise slowly, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand while Stellan slumps against me, boneless and satisfied.
"Holy shit," he breathes.
"That's one way to practice control." I can't help the smug smile. "You kept your wings manifested through the entire thing. That's progress."
Stellan laughs, the sound bright and shocked. "That's what you're focused on? My training?"
"Among other things." I kiss his forehead, then his nose, then his mouth. Soft and sweet after the intensity of what we just shared. "But I meant what I said. I want to help you feel safe. Feel accepted. Feel wanted." My hand cups his face. "Because you are. All of those things. To all of us."
The vulnerability in his eyes makes my chest ache.
"Thank you," he whispers. "For pushing me. For believing in me. For... that."
"Anytime, firebird." I pull the discarded blanket back around his shoulders. "But right now, we should probably get back to the others before Jade comes looking and demands to know why he wasn't invited."
Stellan's laugh follows us down from the roof.
8
AMBROSE
SincelearningwhatItruly am, memories have been surfacing. While the others train Stellan, I've been doing different work. My mother's voice, teaching me the art of deals before I was old enough to understand what she was. The network of contacts I built over centuries, connections I'd buried so deep I'd forgotten they existed. The Crossroads Keeper abilities that Dmitri's imprisonment had suppressed but never destroyed.
I've spent the last few days reaching out through old channels, testing which connections still hold after two years of silence. Most do. Favors owed don't expire, and debts to a Crossroads Keeper are binding whether the debtor remembers them or not.
What I learn on the fourth day makes my blood run cold.
The "essence hunters" Dmitri is sending aren't standard Council enforcers. They're specialists. The kind who are called in when the Council wants someone neutralized, not assessed.
My fingers trace my collarbone where my pendant used to rest, a phantom gesture I still haven't broken. The anchor that once grounded me is gone, dissolved once I learned what I truly am. Now Skye is my tether, and through our bond I can feel the web of deals I've woven throughout Grimrose, all of them pulsing with warnings. Something bad is coming.
The hunters have a perfect track record of declaring every Magila they test as "too dangerous" and stripping their essence on the spot. Every. Single. One. Twenty-three assessments over the last decade. Zero survivors with their aura intact. Three dead from the procedure itself.
Dmitri isn't sending people to evaluate Stellan. He's sending assassins dressed as bureaucrats.
I gather my mates in one of the empty training rooms, safer than Skye's office, which I'm pretty sure has monitoring spells I haven't found yet. When they all file in, I ward the door with a contract that costs me a splitting headache but guarantees our privacy.
"We have a problem," I announce without preamble.
Five pairs of eyes focus on me immediately. Concern spikes from all of them in varying levels.
"The essence hunters. They're not what Varden told us they were." I pull out the documents I've been compiling, records I shouldn't have access to. But that's what Crossroads Keepers do. We find the hidden paths, the buried secrets, the information that wants to stay lost. My mother taught me that before I could walk. "These three Magila. Sylas, Morwen, and Kael. They're the ones being sent."
Jade leans forward, his newly prominent horns catching the light. Over the past few days, his transformation has beenaccelerating. He's more demon than incubus now, and it shows in the predatory way he moves. "I don't recognize those names. Should we?"
"You should." My throat tightens. "They're the Council's secret weapon. Over the last decade, they've been sent to 'assess' twenty-three Magila with unusual essence types. Want to guess how many passed their evaluation?"
Understanding dawns on Skye's face first. Our Praestes is quick, his mind already calculating implications. "How many?" His voice is tight.
"Zero. Not a single one." I let that sink in, my power thrumming with the weight of this truth. "All twenty-three were declared dangerously uncontrolled and had their essence stripped permanently. Three of them died from the procedure. The rest are essentially husks, alive but empty."
The room erupts into chaos.
Rumi's wings burst free without warning, golden feathers spread wide in agitation. Harlow's temperature drops so fast that frost spreads across the windows. Jade's eyes flash purple-black, his aura rising to protect. And Stellan's heat blazes so intense that the papers in my hand start to curl at the edges.
I let them react because I understand their anger. I feel it too, burning in my chest alongside the cold calculation of my nature. But we can't afford to lose control. Not now.
Skye stands, his pink aura blooming around him in a way that makes him look older, more powerful. "This is an execution. They're not coming to test Stellan. They're coming to eliminate him."
