Elysia.
The signal came at midnight.
A stone thrown against my window, three taps, pause, two more. The pattern I'd used in my note. Kieran's confirmation he'd received it and accepted the meeting.
My hands shook as I dressed in dark clothes, moving silently so I wouldn't wake Kael down the hall. I could hear myself screaming that this was stupid, reckless, exactly the kind of thing that would get me killed.
But staying passive was worse. Letting Kieran continue using me as a weapon against Kael, watching the pack's trust erode further with each day I remained, that was a slower death. More painful for everyone involved.
This ended tonight. One way or another.
I slipped through the estate using servants' passages, avoiding guard rotations I'd memorized over weeks of paranoid observat
