The heavy boots outside weren't enforcers. They belonged to the mountain wind, rattling loose pine branches against the cliffside, but the silence that followed carried a far deadlier truth.
Sienna wouldn't stop.
If three assassins failed, she would send six. If six failed, Connor would eventually send a war party under the guise of border defense. They would hunt until the snow turned red, and sooner or later, a rogue blade would find its mark. Evelyn looked down at her hands—still faint with the ghost of silver light—and then pressed them over her lower stomach. She couldn't afford to fight a war from a cave. Not with three fragile lives clinging to her core.
"They need proof," Evelyn said, her voice dropping into a razor-thin whisper.
Silas groaned, leaning against the stone table a
