“If you ever have doubts about this Order you’ve been serving, come to my door. I can show you the truth.” I held his gaze. “The actual truth. About everything.”
The training room went quiet. Just our breathing and the hum of the ventilation system overhead.
Wyatt didn’t speak or nod. He just looked at me. Held my gaze for a long, measured beat, and in his eyes I saw the war between the man who’d built his identity on avenging his parents and the man who’d started to wonder if the foundation was rotten.
Then he picked up the training pad.
“Again,” he said.
I struck. He caught it. We kept training.
The gamble was placed. Whether it paid off or destroyed everything was out of my hands now.
I left the training room with the Purifier data burning a hole in my brain and the knowledge that I’d just planted a seed that could either save Wyatt or get my cover blown.
The drainage tunnels were becoming routine.
I emerged on the eastern side and followed the familiar route. The babies synced with the bond’s pull, guiding me back to camp the way a compass finds north.
I reached the clearing as the sun dropped behind the canopy.
Percy spotted me first. He was on his feet before I’d fully emerged from the tree line, crossing the distance with thatrestless energy that had been absent for days and was now back at full capacity. He pulled me into a hug that lifted my feet off the ground, his face buried in my hair, and the locket pressed between us.
“Miss me, love?”
“It’s been two days.”
“An eternity.” He set me down but kept his hands on my waist. “You look tired.”
“Pregnancy and espionage. Not a restful combination.”
Solomon appeared beside us. The man moved in a silence that shouldn’t have been possible for someone his size, and even after months of knowing him, it still made me jump.
“Report,” he said.
“Nice to see you too, Solomon. I’m fine, thanks for asking.”
“Your pulse is elevated and your color is slightly off from when you left. You’re not at your best.” A beat. “Report.”
“My pulse is elevated because I just crawled through a drainage tunnel while pregnant with triplets, Solomon. And my color is fine. You just think anything less than glowing is a medical emergency.”
“You do look a bit tired,” Percy offered helpfully from behind me.
“I look way better than the first week when I just found out about my pregnancy. It’s an upgrade. I need you to come down, we expected a bit of effect when I am away.”
Solomon’s jaw tightened. The muscle tic that meant he was cataloging my argument, finding it partially valid, and choosing to ignore it anyway.
“Report,” he said again.
I rolled my eyes and just gave him the operational details. Solomon memorized it with his usual efficiency while Percy kept his hand on the small of my back, the warmth of his palm grounding me in a way I’d stopped trying to analyze.
Lucian was by the fire. The gray pallor was gone and the king’s composure was back in full, though his eyes tracked me so intensely that made my stomach flip.
“Wyatt?” he asked.
“Thinking about it. I gave him the opening. He’ll come when he’s ready.”
Lucian’s eyes squinted. “Well, don’t think about him much.”
