I found Mabel slumped against the garden wall near the estate's east gate, conscious but disoriented, a thin trail of blood at her temple where she had clearly been struck, and the sight of her hurt worse than I expected given everything else crowding my thoughts in that moment.
Mabel, I said, dropping to my knees beside her, hands hovering uncertain over the wound. Can you hear me?
She's fast, Mabel muttered, blinking hard to focus on my face. Barely saw her coming. I'm sorry, Wren, I should have sensed something that skilled entering the wards.
This isn't your fault, I said, though urgency was already pulling me back toward my feet. Vesper triggered something in that ritual chamber. A tracking mechanism, she called it. She said Callahan's people already know exactly where the convoy i
