Page 29 of The Witch They Crave

"He's making sure the outcome is as bad as it can be. The documents he gave their advocate—I'd bet my name those are ammunition. Her incident history, her file, maybe things even the council hasn't seen." I press my thumb into my palm again. "He wants her buried. And he's handed the Vanes the shovel."

Kage is quiet for a long time. The dripping fills the space between us.

"You're not going to let them take her." Statement, not question.

"No. But I need the inquest to happen."

His head snaps back to me.

"If we run before the ruling, Leopold's version of events stands. Calypso is a fugitive. The fail-safe stays active, and the council hunts her with cause." I hold his gaze. "If I make the case inside the tribunal—the rune, the sealed file, the sequence at the Revel—I put Leopold's involvement on the record. Even if the ruling goes against us, it creates grounds for formal challenge. And old law mandates a transfer period between ruling and handoff. Forty-eight hours minimum while the terms are processed."

"Forty-eight hours," Kage says, processing.

"That's the window. If my argument doesn't land and the Vanes get what they want, we have two days before she's formally transferred into their custody."

"Two days to do what?"

"Whatever we have to."

The corridor goes quiet enough to hear the bulb filament buzzing. Kage studies me like he's recalculating everything he thought he knew.

"So tomorrow you play the game."

"Tomorrow I play the game. And if the game doesn't work—"

"Then I play mine." He says it flat. Final. Like he’s ready to murder all of Louisiana if it means keeping her as far away from danger as possible.

"I need you to let me try the tribunal first. If I can raise enough doubt about Leopold to delay the ruling, she stays at Devenir. Stays in training. That's the best outcome."

"And the worst?"

"The worst is the Vanes walk out of that room with a blood claim upheld and forty-eight hours to collect. But I still have the fail-safe." I let that sit. "They can reassign custody. They can't reassign the device without a separate proceeding."

Something moves through his face. Quick. One caged thing seeing another. Then it's gone.

"And Leopold?" Kage asks quietly. "When this is done? Whatever happens in that room?"

"Leopold engineered the death of a student to destroy a woman he's been hunting since she stepped foot on this campus. That doesn't go unanswered."

"Good." He rolls his neck. "Because if you don't handle him, I will. And I won't be filing paperwork about it."

"Noted."

He straightens. The performance slides back into place—the grin, the loose shoulders, the man who doesn't care about anything.

"You're not what I thought you were," he says. Already turning.

"What did you think I was?"

"An asshole."

His boots take the stairs two at a time and the sound fades up through the stone until the cellar eats it.

I go back to my room. Sit on the cot. One knee drawn up, back against the wall, the stone cold through my shirt. Her heartbeat finds me even here. Sixty-two. Steady.

I run the outcomes.

Best case: I present the evidence. Leopold’s rune, the file, the engineered cascade. The tribunal delays the ruling pending investigation. Calypso stays at Devenir, stays in training, stays mine to protect. Weeks. Maybe months. Enough time for her magic to become something they can't afford to cage.