She doesn't run.
I was wrong about that.
Maybe she thought Kalen was bluffing. Maybe she thought she still had one move left to play. Whatever the reason, when the Elder Council's guards come for her the next morning, Lilith is still in the pack house—sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea, composed in the way of someone who has decided that composure is the last thing they have left.
I watch her get taken away through the window.
She doesn't look back. Not once.
I almost respect it, I think. The refusal to make it a scene.
Almost.
---
Kalen doesn't sleep.
For two days, he shuts himself in the council chamber with every document Declan has gathered—stacks of evidence that cover the long table, organized by date, by category, by degree of damage caused. The border patrol record
