Chapter 22 · The Founder's Ink

Chapter 22: The Founder's Ink

"Say that again." Silas's voice came out of six wall screens at once, stacked wolf eyes burning down into the command pit. "Tell me how a night-shift fighter freezes a royal countdown with a sheet nobody logged."

Vance laughed before I could answer. Blood still ran from his split lip onto the console he was cuffed to. "Because she stole it, my King. Four seconds his mate cost him standing there sniffing her like a dog. Then she pulls a miracle out of her bra."

"It wasn't a miracle." My throat was raw from the dust and the restraint collar someone had clipped shut too tight an hour ago. "It was math I already knew."

"Convenient math." Silas's jaw worked on the screen. "Convenient timing. You expect me to put the realm's survival on a hunch?"

Kane's hand closed around my wrist before I finished turning. Not gentle. A clamp, thumb pressed into the tendon like he was pinning a wound shut. "She saved thirty thousand people twelve minutes ago," he said. "Ask your questions after you stop calling her a liar in front of them."

"I'll call her whatever the evidence says she is."