Mag-log inChapter 145BIANCAThe three children sat in their corner of the playground, surrounded by books and dinosaurs, entirely unconcerned with the running and shouting happening around them. The girl had opened one of her books and was reading something aloud—I could tell from the way Theo was listening, head slightly tilted, the posture of someone taking in information. The boy had his book open on the ground in front of all three of them, something with photographs, something they could all look at together.Theo laughed.It was quiet from here—I couldn't hear it through the windows and the distance—but I could see it. The way his shoulders moved, the way his face changed, the brief flash of that grin that was almost his old grin.My eyes burned.He was okay. He was going to be okay. Not perfectly, not without cost, not without the shape of loss remaining in him for a very long time. But he had friends who sat in his corner. He had dino
Chapter 144BIANCAHe was carrying something. A small bag, canvas, worn at the strap in the way that meant it had been used constantly and handled with the particular intensity of a child who didn't separate easily from objects they'd decided were important.I recognized the bag.I'd bought it for him at a market stall eight months ago, before everything, because he'd seen it and pointed at it with the wordless urgency of a child who doesn't yet have language for wanting something. It had been red then. It was still red, faded now at the edges, one of the strap buckles replaced with something that didn't quite match.He'd kept it. Matthew had kept it for him.My throat closed.Theo moved to a section of the playground near the far fence—not the climbing equipment, not the open space where most of the children were running, but a quieter corner near a low bench where there was a small patch of level ground. He set his bag down with the careful
Chapter 143KLAUS"Yes. The full information needs to come from someone he has reason to trust and context to understand. Klaus Blackwood from BloodMoon City is—" I paused. "He has no reason to trust me beyond the fact that I have resources and I called. That's not enough for what he actually needs to know." "Tell me what you know about the preparation work Voss is doing. Specifically what she's building, what it will look like from a magical signature standpoint, and what I'd need to do to counteract it."This was what I'd hoped for and expected. Bianca operating as the resource she was—not as the object of everyone's protective instincts but as the person best equipped to address the specific problem at hand.I pulled up Roy's documentation and began walking her through it.We worked for ninety minutes, until Lucian appeared in the doorway looking like a man who'd also not slept, followed shortly by Elijah and Mikael and Roy in various states of early-morning functionality.By five
Chapter 142KLAUS"I'm going to tell her everything tonight," Lucian said. "About the call with Matthew, about Thorne's positioning, about where Voss is. And then I'm going to tell her the thing I've been holding back since she arrived in this city."I didn't need to ask what he meant. There was only one thing left, and we both knew it."Lucian," I said. "It's time.""I know." A long exhale. "Klaus, if she leaves after—if she decides she can't—""Then you will have been honest, and she will have made an informed choice," I said. "Which is all you ever owed her." I paused. "But I don't think that's what happens. I've watched her with you. With Louis. With the life she's built here. That doesn't disappear because the foundation turns out to be more complicated than she knew.""You can't know that.""No," I admitted. "But I can observe evidence and draw reasonable conclusions. And the evidence suggests that Bianca Morrison is not a woman who makes her choices based on convenience or simp
Chapter 141KLAUSLucian needed to tell Bianca about the call with Matthew before she found out from any other direction. She was already planning to go to Silver Moon territory. She was already, I suspected, further along in her decision-making than she'd been willing to say to Lucian on the phone earlier today. If she arrived at that assembly operating on information that didn't include this conversation, if she made decisions based on an incomplete understanding of what groundwork had been laid—My phone buzzed. Elijah.*Lockwood's movements for the past six hours tracked. He left BloodMoon City at fourteen hundred, driving toward Silver Moon territory. Took secondary roads rather than the main route. Arrived at a location seventeen kilometers outside Silver Moon pack boundary approximately two hours ago. Currently stationary.*I read the message twice.Thorne had left the city before I'd even made the call to Matthew. Had been positioning himself in Silver Moon territory for hours
Chapter 140KLAUSHe was sharper than I'd been giving him full credit for. The therapy had done more than improve his parenting—it had apparently cleared some of the self-absorption that had been obscuring his analytical instincts.I made a decision in the space of two seconds, which was about as long as I could reasonably pause before he read the pause itself as information."The intelligence we've shared is accurate," I said. "The threat to your son is real and you're right to take it seriously." I kept my voice even, informational, the tone of someone confirming rather than warning. "What I'd ask is that you continue to prepare for the assembly as planned. Don't change your announced schedule, don't alter the guest list, don't take any actions that would suggest you've received specific intelligence about particular attendees." I paused. "My office is managing some related matters in parallel. Your cooperation in maintaining normal appearance will be more helpful than additional pr
Chapter 40MATTHEWHe dissolved into sobs, curling into a ball on his bed, and when I tried to reach for him again, he flinched away from my touch like I was poison.My own son. Flinching from me. Hating me. And I deserved every bit of it.I left his room because I couldn't stand to see his pain an
Chapter 34BIANCAI woke to the sound of machines beeping steadily, Every breath took effort, and my chest ached with a deep, bone-weary exhaustion that suggested I'd been fighting something or someone.My eyes cracked open slowly, the fluorescent lights above was too bright, making me shut my eye
Chapter 32MATTHEW The next two days passed quickly as I was staying more hours in the hospital, in room 306, watching over Mia, making sure that there was no complications or her disease would resurface. Mia was recovering beautifully—better than anyone had dared hope. She was sitting up by the
Chapter 29BIANCA"The catch," Rivera said, leaning back in his chair with an expression that looked gentle despite his burly apperance , "is that you owe me. Not money, all i need from you is just your commitment to saving my son. You stay in BloodMoon City, you continue treating Louis until the c







