ログインRonan’s POVSelene reached for the letter before I had finished reading it again. I let her take it, watching her fold the paper along the old crease instead of putting it back in the box.“Xavier, check where that belongs with the others. What she wrote before it, anything afterward about the same conversation. Put those together.”He drew the box closer, moving the loose pages away from a smear of blood on the table. “I’ll need the date.”Selene opened the letter long enough for him to copy it, then folded it again. “Cassius has already read whatever you’re going to find.”“Maybe. I still want to see it myself.” I looked past her toward the men stationed between the tents. “Get Darius over here. Tell him to bring Bren.”One of the guards left. Selene tucked the letter away while Garrick leaned across the table and picked up the strip of leather again. He had turned it over so many times there was blood on both sides now. I took it from him and set it beside my hand.“Leave that alon
Selene’s POV“He can yell it through the fucking gate.”Darius turned away.Ronan stood.I caught the front of his shirt and shoved him back into the chair.“What the hell are you doing?”“The east side is open.”“And you’re bleeding through your clothes.”“One of my guards is dead.”“I know. I watched him hit the ground.”“The other one’s missing.”“I heard that too.”He tried to get up again.I put both hands on his shoulders.“Sit down.”“Selene.”“No.”Blood had soaked through the cloth under his hand and run down into the waistband of his pants. There was more on his fingers, his forearm, his face.He looked past me anyway.“Darius!”Darius turned.“Find Corbin. Get Bren over here too. I want to know exactly when he last saw that post.”“I’m already doing it.”Ronan started forward again.I pushed him back.His eyes cut to mine.“Stop.”“I need to know what happened.”“You’ll know from here.”“Damon just walked through my perimeter.”“And put a knife in you while he was here.”Hi
Ronan’s POV“How to make her give it to him.”Damon stood at the edge of the firelight with blood down one side of his shirt and one hand braced against a tree. Selene caught my wrist, and I stepped in front of her.“Where are my men?”“I don’t know.”“Try again.”“I didn’t touch them.”“Then how did you get through the east watch?”“I came through the ravine.”“That drop would’ve broken your neck.”“Almost did.”Darius came around the tents fastening his sword belt. Garrick followed him, took one look at Damon and kept coming.“Stay back,” I told him.Garrick stopped beside Darius. “He comes near Mira, I’m not asking you first.”“I know.”Damon wiped blood from his mouth. “I didn’t come for Mira.”Garrick laughed once. “That supposed to help?”“Enough.” I looked at Damon. “You said Cassius knows something. Start talking.”“Not with everybody standing here.”“You don’t get privacy.”“Then don’t blame me when he finds out before I finish.”“Cassius already knows you’re a traitor. Pick
Ronan’s POVWe’d been back at camp for almost four hours, and I still hadn’t made it inside the tent.Selene had come out looking for me twice. The first time, I told her Xavier and I weren’t done. The second time, I said I wanted another look around the perimeter before everybody settled in.She hadn’t argued much either time.That was probably why I was still sitting there.The coffee beside my elbow had been cold for at least an hour. Helene’s letters were spread all over the folding table, mixed in with Xavier’s notes, copies of old records, family names, dates and half a dozen things that had seemed more useful before Cassius opened his mouth at the gate.Xavier slid another page across to me.“This is the earliest one I found that mentions her knowing somebody was coming before they got there.”I picked it up. “I read this.”“I know you read it.”“Then why are you giving it back to me?”“Because ten minutes ago you asked if there was anything before her first shift.”I looked do
Cassius’s POVDamon turned on me before Ronan’s people had even moved.“You told me Selene was part of this.”“She is.”“You didn’t tell me she was the reason you wanted Ronan here.”I looked past him toward the open gate. Ronan had moved closer to Selene again, not enough to shove her behind him, but enough that anyone coming through that gate would have to go through him first. Selene noticed what he was doing and stayed right where she was instead of letting him block her completely.I had heard about the two of them for months. Helene had spent years telling me everything she thought she understood about Selene, and Damon had spent considerably less time telling me everything he thought he understood about his father.Both of them had left quite a bit out.“I wanted Ronan here,” I said. “I wanted Selene with him. Mira gave me the best chance of getting both.”Mira stared at Damon from beside Garrick. “You knew?”“I knew Cassius was interested in Selene.”“How interested?”“I didn’
Selene’s POVCassius left the gates open.Ronan slowed several yards before them, and everyone behind us stopped with him. The road continued straight through the entrance before curving between the trees toward the Varric house, wide enough that Cassius could have lined both sides with men if he wanted to.He hadn’t.At least not where we could see them.Garrick rode up beside me and stared through the entrance. “They didn’t drag Mira all the way here just to hand her back at the gate.”Ronan looked toward the wall instead of the road. “No.”I shifted the reins in my hands. “Then why leave it open?”“Because he wants us inside.”My father looked at Ronan. “I figured that part out.”Ronan glanced over. “I wasn’t explaining it to you.”“I know. You were explaining it to my daughter like she’s five.”“I wasn’t doing that either.”“You do it a lot.”I looked between them. “Can we save this until after we get Mira?”Garrick looked at me. “I’m not the one who started it.”“You absolutely w







