Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 61 - Chapitre 66

Drew called it in at ten past nine on Monday morning.Luna was in the estate office with Petra, waiting for the Authority's acknowledgment, when the radio on Caelum's belt crackled and the young gate wolf's voice came through, careful and slightly higher than usual."Alpha. There's a man at the gate. No appointment. He's asking for the Vayne heir by name."Caelum looked at Luna."Name?" he said.A pause. "He says it doesn't matter. He says she'll know him.""Describe him.""Sixties. Grey coat. Very polite." Drew hesitated. "Sir, he's holding a hat. In both hands. Like he's at a funeral."Luna felt the room go quiet around her.Very polite. Very quiet."Let him through," she said."Luna," Caelum said."He came to the front gate in daylight with his hat in his hands," she said. "A man who wanted to hurt us would not do that. A man who wanted to be seen would." She stood. "I'll meet him in the receiving room. You'll be beside me. Petra, stay here and watch the Authority's channel. Ren, f

They reached the packhouse at two in the morning.Nobody had slept in the cars. The younger children had cried quietly for the first hour, then gone silent in the way Luna understood too well, a silence that was not peace but waiting. Pip had ridden in Ren's car with her hand wrapped around the end of Sable's cardigan sleeve and had not let go once.Drew was at the gate. He opened it without a word, and then, when the convoy had passed, Luna saw him in the mirror lift one hand to his mouth.The packhouse had been warned. Maren had seen to that. Every lamp on the ground floor was lit, and the front door stood open on a hall full of people who had been told to be quiet and were obeying with visible effort. Garrick's wife Mira had been up since midnight. The kitchen staff stood in a row with blankets over their arms.Luna stepped out of the car and understood, in one breath, that she had not thought about beds.Thirty-six children. She had thought about the protocol, the observers, the A

The boy on the steps was called Ansel, and the first thing he said to them was, "Sorry, I need a wee."Nobody knew what to do with that."I've been out there since eleven," he said, already walking backwards toward a hedge. "In this. Don't touch anything until I'm back. Actually, touch whatever you like, I don't care, just don't go downstairs without me, the third step is loose."He went. Ren stared after him with his mouth slightly open."Is that the one who's going to help us rescue a girl from a dungeon?" he said."He's twenty," Caelum said. "He's cold.""He's wetting a hedge.""Ren.""I'm just saying it's not what I pictured."Tomas Reyes, behind them, had taken a mint out of his coat pocket and was unwrapping it with great concentration, the cellophane crackling loud in the hall. "I'll note," he said, "that the minor on the premises left the building voluntarily and returned, and that the door was opened by him." He put the mint in his mouth. "I'm not sure how to note the hedge."