Novel-novel oleh Vero Writes

Calla's POVI rounded them all up in the living room because secondhand news was always distorted by whoever delivered it first.I wanted them to hear this from me, in my words, before anyone else reacted to a rumor instead of the reality."Ronan had Mara's inside contact," I said when we'd all occupied the seats.Daven on an armchair, Calix pacing back and forth in the space in front of the desks, Knox on the sofa next to me, Soren in the corner that he always claimed when he wanted to take up a room but have someone else watch him. "A steward, Voss. He's got proof. Border logs, cheating patrol reports, enough to bring him in.""That's good news." Daven leaned forward. "Why do you look like you're about to tell us the part that isn't?""Because there's a price attached. Ronan won't hand over the rest of what he knows unless I publicly acknowledge something. In front of both packs." I made myself say it plainly, the way Ronan had said it to me. "A bloodline. The one his father spent f

Calla's POVJade showed up with takeout and wine before I'd even finished texting her the full story, like she'd heard the shake in my voice through the phone and decided this one needed to happen in person."Okay." She set the containers down on my coffee table, pulling off her jacket. "Say it again, slower this time. I want to make sure I heard you right.""You already heard it right the first time. I could hear you stop breathing through the phone.""I needed a second to process before I showed up and said something unhelpful." She dropped onto the couch beside me, bumping my shoulder gently with hers. "So. Slower.""Ronan wants me to publicly acknowledge some kind of bloodline. In front of both packs. At the assembly, probably, once Daven gets it scheduled." I sat across from her, knees pulled up to my chest. "In exchange for the rest of what he knows about Mara's inside contact.""The bearer bloodline. The one his father spent forty years chasing." Jade said it slowly, like she w

Calla's POVI didn't call him back that day. Or the next day either. I sat with it instead, turning the request over slowly in my hands like something sharp I hadn't yet decided whether to pick up.The third day, I drove out to the overlook alone again, though without telling the other because there was no longer any point to sitting with it alone.It had just become yet another way of not doing so.He was there twenty minutes after my text, like he knew I'd turn up here for some reason."You didn't have to come to me," he said. "I would've met you anywhere.""I needed the drive. Time to think without anyone watching my face while I did it." I crossed my arms against the wind. "I have questions before I give you an answer.""Ask them.""Why now? You've known about the bloodline for months; you said so yourself. Why wait until Voss's name was already in your hand before you asked for this?""Because asking you before I had anything real to trade for it would have made this extortion in

Calla's POVRonan texted at nine in the morning, three words that made my stomach drop before I even opened the full message. Need to talk. Alone.Not with Calix. Not with Daven, not with any of them. Alone, which meant whatever he thought needed to be said, he wanted, without it being muffled through a brother's assumptions about what I should hear.I ran into him at the overlook where we'd met that time near the border, when the world still seemed easier and less demanding than it did today. When I got there, he was already waiting, hands stuck in his jacket pockets, jaw clenched in a way that revealed he'd practiced this a few times and still hadn't been thrilled with the performance."It seems like you want to tell me something you shouldn't be telling me," I told him, walking about four feet toward him."Several things, actually." He managed a small, humorless smile. "I spent most of last night deciding which one to lead with.""Lead with the easy one first. Let me breathe befor

Calla's POVDaven knocked on my door at eight, and something about the sound, too careful, too deliberate, told me he'd been standing out there longer than a normal knock would suggest."Come in," I called, setting down my hairbrush.He stepped inside slowly, closing the door behind him with a quiet click, and I knew before he said a single word that whatever he'd come to ask me wasn't going to be easy for either of us."You look like you rehearsed something on the way up here and lost it on the stairs," I said, trying to soften whatever was coming before it arrived."Something like that." He sat on the edge of the chair by my window, hands clasped between his knees, and took a long breath before meeting my eyes. "We have proof now, Calla. Real proof. Thornfield, the building, the tranquilizer, the border gap. All of it traces to Mara, cleanly, undeniably.""That's good news. Why do you look like you're about to tell me someone died?""Because the council won't act on paperwork alone.

Daven's POVI had been sitting at my desk, staring at the Thornfield filings and Ronan's border pictures, long after everyone else had gone to bed. Everything was spread out in front of me like evidence for a trial no one wanted to conduct. We had proof now, real proof. Not just inferences and loose ends we could dismiss. And proof was heavy; I was beginning to see.I'd been working toward it for two years, after all, since the first rumblings about Mara's discretionary account appeared in my inbox and I assured myself I was overreacting, that no one that close to this family could do what the numbers indicated. I'd been wrong to think it then, and I'd be wrong now if I thought that having solid evidence would make this next step any smoother. On the contrary, it only made it more difficult. Suspicions could be silent—evidence, not so much.Calix knocked once and let himself in without waiting for an answer, two glasses and a bottle of something amber in hand. "You've been in here