Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

"Gone," I repeat, like saying it again might make it less true. "How does someone just walk out of a fortress full of guards without anyone noticing?""She didn't walk out the front gate," Cassian says, pacing now, jaw tight. "One of the stable hands saw her take a horse from the west paddock, alone; there was no escort, "He said that Nadia looked calm, and there was nothing about her behavior that seemed unusual, not until we started asking questions an hour later.""And the notebook," Iris says. "You're certain she took it?""I left it on my desk before I came to find you, and It's already gone, but nothing else in the study was touched." Cassian stops pacing, drags a hand through his hair. "She came back for it, which means she knew exactly what was in it, and exactly how badly she needed it gone before anyone read it too closely."My stomach twists. "She knows we found it and also knows we're getting close.""That's my guess too." He looks between the two of us, something sharp an

"Damon, circle the east side," Cassian shouts, already moving toward the ruins. "Cut her off before she reaches the tree line."Damon peels off fast, horse crashing through the underbrush, and Cassian grabs my arm before I can follow on foot."Stay behind me," he says, voice low and hard. "This place isn't safe, even without her running loose in it."We push through the broken archway together, into what's left of The Hollow, and my breath catches despite everything else happening around us. Stone columns rise up out of the mist, half swallowed by moss and creeping vine, cracked open at odd angles like something enormous once tore through the roof and never got fixed. Old carvings run along the remaining walls, worn smooth by decades of rain and wind, symbols I don't recognize but somehow feel like I should."This way," Cassian says, following the faint sound of footsteps echoing off broken stone.We move fast through what must have once been a main hall, wide enough for dozens of peo

Two days pass before I can convince Cassian to let me return to The Hollow properly, this time with Iris beside me instead of a chaotic chase in the dark. He agrees only after I promise Damon and two guards will wait at the edge of the ruins, close enough to reach us if anything goes wrong."I don't like this," Cassian says, watching us prepare to leave from the courtyard. "Not after what happened last time.""We'll be careful," Iris says. "And we won't go looking for whatever's living in those ruins, just the archive beneath them, if it's really there.""That's not exactly reassuring.""It's the best I've got," Iris says, offering a small, tired smile.He doesn't look satisfied, but he lets us go, and Iris and I ride out together under grey morning sky, the guards trailing at a careful distance behind."Did you tell him?" Iris asks quietly once we're far enough from the house that nobody else can hear. "Everything, I mean.""Not everything," I admit. "I told him about the memory bin

The ride back to Blackridge House feels longer than it should, both files tucked safe inside my cloak, my mind racing through everything we found buried under those ruins. Damon rides close beside us the whole way, watching me with new concern written plain across his face, though he doesn't push for answers until we're safely back behind the fortress walls.Cassian's waiting in the courtyard when we arrive, and the second he sees my face, whatever he's about to say dies in his throat."What happened," he says instead."Not here," I say, glancing at the guards still nearby, at the stable hands pretending not to listen. "Your study, please."He doesn't argue. We move quickly through the halls, Iris close behind, and once the study door shuts firm behind us, I finally let myself breathe properly for the first time since we descended those stone steps."Show me," Cassian says.I set both files on his desk, and he opens the first one, the name Mara Quinn written plain across the cover, an

Cassian doesn't want me anywhere near Nadia's cell. He’s standing in the hallway outside the small stone room they've “locked her in”, his arms crossed and his jaw set tight."It's not safe," he says. "Not yet, not until we know exactly how dangerous the people she's tangled up with actually are.""I need answers only she can give me," I say. "And you know that.""I know you almost got a headstone with your name on it a week ago," he says. "I know somebody's already tried to get to Osric, tried to get to you twice. I'm not letting you walk into a room with the one person who might still be reporting to whoever's behind all of it.""She's locked up and guarded. What's she going to do, Cassian?"He doesn't answer right away, and I can see the fight in him, wanting to protect me and knowing at the same time he can't keep me wrapped in cotton forever, not after everything I've already survived on my own."Ten minutes," he finally says. "Damon stays right outside the door. You should call