Page 393 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

He’s only looking at Kade.

‘I know you,’ he whispers again. ‘I see you in there scheming.’

‘Only good schemes. Please trust me.’

‘I can’t watch you die again.’

‘You won’t. We can do this.’

‘I don’t doubt you can do it. It’s the cost that worries me, baby.’

‘I’ve paid my dues. We all have.’

Lachlan considers, silent while he thinks.

‘You know it makes sense,’ Riley intones with a soft degree of knowing. ‘It’s the best place for Kade to be. High ground, rough approaches, a good clearance radius. We plate the remaining glass, lock down the tunnels. Backup generators are ready, surveillance on every route. We hold the Tower and the Tower holds us.’

Lachlan looks at him so strangely then, it’s like he wants to say something, ask something, but he doesn’t.

‘And if it doesn’t work?’

‘Then you get to spend your remaining time with him anyway, and we know how to make things better going forward.’

Kade absolutely despises the first part of that, but he appreciates Riley’s backup, so he forces himself to agree. ‘See? This is the smart plan.’

‘You and Kade will still be caught in the Death Knot.’

‘That doesn’t matter.’

‘I know how bad you wanted the book to—’

‘I don’t need to see it anymore,’ Riley says calmly. ‘Blaire offered to let me read it after this, to prove there’s nothing in it that can break the Knot. But that was never why I wanted it.’

‘What did you want it for?’ Lachlan asks.

The Watch falls quiet.

Lee’s attention sharpens.

Riley looks at none of them. ‘To reverse what I am.’

Kade’s stomach drops. ‘What does that mean?’

‘I wanted to know if there was a way for me to… be normal, for lack of a better word. To undo what my body did.’

Lee’s disappointment gives way to something perilously close to pity.

‘Mon trésor, you cannot remove your Wildwane nature,’ she tells him. ‘It is not separate from you.’

‘I know that now.’

‘Riley,’ Kade begins. ‘Look at me.’

His brother’s expression hasn’t changed.

No anger. No embarrassment.

He’s just so calm like always.