Bramwell's POV
The townhouse was in a narrow street that smelled of woodsmoke and river water. Tola's people had been watching it for two days. Two occupants confirmed. One guard.
We moved at the second hour of night.
Not dramatically — no soldiers, no ceremony. Daren and I and one of his guards, moving through the back entrance that Tola's contact had identified.
Lenora was outside with the second guard, watching the front.
We found Aldric in the ground floor sitting room, alone, reviewing what appeared to be financial documents. He looked up when we entered and had exactly the expression I'd expected: not surprise but the particular resignation of a man whose calculation has finally run out of runway.
He stood.
"Alpha," he said.
"Sit down," I said.
He sat. I sat across from him.
