Chapter 13 – The Price of Loyalty
Saturday, 1:11 a.m.
The Eclipse Penthouse war room (formerly the guest bedroom)
The wall that used to hold 8,000 photos of Kael was now covered in new targets.
Lysandra's face in the center.
Red string connecting her to Cur, Imp, Saint, Dove, Cassian, three professors, and seventeen lesser students who had taken her money.
Asher stood on a chair pinning new surveillance stills.
Rei was cross-legged on the floor, hacking the campus security grid with a laptop balanced on his knees.
Kael leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching me like I was the only real thing in the room.
I stood at the head of the table in silk pajamas and Kael's black coat, rose-gold choker the only color on me.
"Timeline," I said.
Asher didn't look away from the wall.
"Forty-three hours until the emergency Council session Lysandra requested. She's flying in three Enigma-hunter specialists from Geneva. They land Monday night."
Rei snorted. "They still think Enigmas bleed silver. Cute."
Kael's voice was quiet. "They'll test you publicly if she forces the issue. One prick of a needle and your blood markers scream extinct."
I traced Lysandra's photo with one finger.
"They won't get close enough for a needle," I said.
Rei spun the laptop around.
Screen showed a live feed of the medical wing basement.
Cur was strapped to a bed, eyes open but vacant, IV dripping something clear.
Dove sat beside him, reading a medical chart.
"She's keeping him sedated," Rei said. "But he wakes up every four hours and screams your name for exactly eleven seconds before they knock him out again."
I felt Kael move behind me, hand settling on my shoulder.
"You broke him too cleanly," he murmured. "He's proof now."
I turned, looked up at him.
"Proof can be erased."
Asher hopped down from the chair.
"Already handled," he said. "Rei and I are swapping his charts tonight. By tomorrow he'll be diagnosed with experimental rut psychosis triggered by Cassian's illegal pheromones. Cassian takes the fall. Cur becomes a victim. Lysandra loses her star witness."
Rei grinned. "And I spiked Cassian's water with the same rut drug two days ago. He's currently locked in the west dorm bathroom humping a showerhead. Security thinks he's dying."
Kael's grip tightened. "You two are terrifying."
Rei saluted with two fingers. "Learned from the best."
I looked at the wall again.
One photo was missing string.
Imp.
"Where is she?" I asked.
Asher's face went carefully blank.
"That's… complicated."
He pulled out another picture and slapped it on the table.
Imp.
In the library.
Yesterday.
Sitting across from Leander.
They were holding hands.
Kael made a low sound.
"Explain."
Asher exhaled. "Imp's been feeding Leander information for weeks. Not everything. Just enough to keep him safe. She says Lysandra plans to use him as bait to draw you out. Imp doesn't want him hurt."
Rei rolled his eyes. "Love makes people stupid."
I stared at the photo.
Imp's face was softer than I'd ever seen it.
"She's choosing him," I said quietly.
Kael's voice was ice. "She betrays Lysandra, she dies. That's how packs work."
I turned to him.
"Not anymore."
I looked at Asher and Rei.
"New plan. We don't break Lysandra's pack. We take it."
Rei's eyebrows shot up. "You want to recruit the knife-happy Italian?"
"I want choices," I said. "Imp gets one. Leander or Lysandra. She picks wrong, she loses both."
Kael's hand slid to the back of my neck, thumb brushing the bite mark he'd refreshed this morning.
"You're playing a dangerous game, little monster."
I leaned into him.
"I learned from the best," I whispered.
Sunday, 3:07 a.m.
Library sub-basement, forbidden archives
Imp was waiting exactly where Asher said she'd be.
Alone.
She stood when I walked in, knife already in her hand.
Kael stayed at the entrance, blocking the only exit.
Imp's eyes flicked between us.
"I'm not here to fight," she said.
I stopped three meters away.
"You're here to choose," I said.
She swallowed.
"Leander doesn't know I'm Lysandra's blade," she said. "If she finds out I talked to you—"
"She'll kill him to punish you," I finished. "I know."
Imp's knuckles went white on the knife.
"I can't watch him die."
"Then don't," I said softly. "Come to me. Bring the others if you can. I won't force loyalty. I'll earn it."
She laughed, bitter.
"You're asking me to betray my queen for a ghost."
"I'm asking you to choose someone who will never use the person you love as collateral."
Silence.
Then Imp did something I didn't expect.
She flipped the knife, offered it handle-first.
"Cur's too far gone," she said. "Saint will die before he betrays her. Dove follows Saint. But me… I'm tired."
I took the knife.
Kael stepped forward.
Imp met his eyes.
"If you hurt Leander," she told him, "I'll gut you both."
Kael smiled, slow and terrifying.
"Understood."
Imp looked back at me.
"What happens now?"
"Now," I said, "you go back. Act normal. When Lysandra makes her move, you choose the winning side."
She nodded once.
Then she walked past Kael and disappeared into the stacks.
Kael came to me, took the knife from my hand, and pressed it into my palm.
"You're collecting broken things," he murmured.
I looked up at him.
"Only the ones worth fixing."
He kissed me, hard and claiming.
Monday, 8:00 p.m.
The night before the Council arrived
We were five now.
Me.
Kael.
Asher with his cameras and quiet ruthlessness.
Rei with his chaos and fourteen-year-old fury.
Imp, freshly defected, sitting on my couch chewing cherry gum and sharpening a new knife.
Leander didn't know yet.
Lysandra still thought she had four blades.
Cur was officially "hospitalized" after Cassian's "attack."
Cassian was in solitary confinement, screaming about ghosts.
The campus held its breath.
I stood at the window, watching snow fall over the frozen lake.
Kael came up behind me, arms around my waist, chin on my head.
"Whatever happens tomorrow," he said, "I chose you. In that arena. In every room before and after. Nothing changes that."
I turned in his arms.
"I know," I whispered. "That's why I'm not hiding anymore."
I reached up and unclipped my rose-gold choker for the first time in public.
The metal fell to the floor with a soft clink.
My scent rolled out (full, unfiltered).
Dark.
Metallic.
Endless.
Asher dropped his camera.
Rei swore in three languages.
Imp's knife paused mid-stroke.
Kael just breathed it in like oxygen and smiled.
"Finally," he said.
I looked at my tiny, broken, perfect pack.
"Tomorrow," I said, "the world learns what I am."
I smiled, slow and sharp.
"And the day after, they learn who I kept."
Outside, the snow kept falling.
Inside, the ghost prince took off his mask.
And the king knelt willingly at his feet.
The war hadn't started yet.
But the first shot had already been fired.
And this time, I wasn't pretending anymore.