Half an hour before departure. The garage behind the main house.
Asher slammed the tailgate of the pickup dow
LOGINHalf an hour before departure. The garage behind the main house.Asher slammed the tailgate of the pickup down. The metal came down with a hard clang. He turned and stared coldly at Silas, leaning against the SUV, and Rowan beside him with his briefcase."The forest estate is Kingston private property. The patrol doesn't even rotate through there." Asher's face was black with anger, dark gold surfacing in his gray eyes. "You two tagging along. What exactly is that supposed to be?"
A young patrolman's shovel clanged onto the snow below.Darcy stood at the second-floor window. She had only reached up to pull the curtain. The young patrolman below froze like he'd been hit square in the chest. His gray ears flattened hard against his head. He hunched instinctively and scrambled behind a snowbank.Last night's seal had only cracked a sliver. Darcy's clean scent of cold snow and green grass had already thrown the hundred-odd residents of the main house into chaos.
The master bedroom door locked.The wall lamp cast a dim yellow glow. The only other sound was the low hum of warm air from the central heating.Asher locked the door behind him and crossed to the bed in long strides.He didn't turn on the overhead light. He kept only the faint yellow of the wall lamp, knelt on one knee at the edge of the bed, and caught Darcy's hand where it hung at her side."Try to pull it back."
The second-floor banquet hall of the Kingston main house blazed with light.The long buffet table gleamed. Silver warming trays held fresh-roasted meat and hot dishes. Thick snow piled outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. Central heating pushed warm air through the room. Over a hundred core Kingston family members, patrol captains, and executives from Kingston industries filled the hall.In the central seating area, Asher sat with Darcy half in his arms.Darcy wore a sharply cu
The small sitting room at the end of the corridor was quiet.Rowan pulled the door half shut, cutting off the noise of patrol members moving through the hall. He stood by the desk and pulled a copy of an old document from his briefcase, sliding it across to Darcy."When you were eighteen, the outpost's ruling that you couldn't shift was missing a step." Rowan tapped the paper. "By the rules, after a first failed shift, there had to be a second examination six months later, witnessed by three senior physicians. But Garrick signed it alone. No one ever examined you again."Darcy's fingertip pressed the page. "What does that mean?""Once I file this, the Council can no longer treat that ruling as final." Rowan watched her eyes, his voice softening. "But I need to be clear with you first. If you want to overturn it, those old men won't admit fault quietly. They'll drag you back and do what they did before. Lay you on a cold steel table, draw blood, check your
Morning sunlight came through the thick wooden window frame, laying bright patches across the solid wood floor.Asher, shirtless, had two long nails between his teeth and a hammer in one hand, fixing the brackets of a new pine shelf to the stone wall of the bedroom.Thud. Thud. Thud. Fine plaster dust scattered across the floor.Darcy sat on the rug, her old canvas bag open in front of her, pulling small objects out one by one.







