Chapter 420

‘She said Sera’s information wasn’t a weapon,” Margo read, “because she was already aware of and enjoying the situation Sera was describing.”

vory was very still.

‘She then told Sera,” Margo read, “that treatment was available in five months. Approximately. Pending queue assessment.”

The room was quiet for a moment.

‘Five months,” Ivory said.

‘The queue is legitimate,” Nina said.

‘The queue is legitimate,” Ivory agreed. “But-” she stopped. Started again. “She used me,” she said. “She used the implication of ne specifically to destroy the weapon.”

“Yes,” I said.

‘To protect-” she stopped again.

‘Both angles of it,” I said. “Yours and mine simultaneously. If I was already in the situation Sera was trying to use as a weapon, neither angle of the weapon worked.”

vory was looking at me with the expression that had no category. Not the clinical assessment, not the controlled warmth she allowed occasionally, not the professional distance she maintained with careful consistency. Something that was all of those hings dissolved into a different register entirely.

‘You kissed me,” she said.

‘I did not,” I said.

‘You told Sera–”

“I told Sera a thing that was strategically useful,” I said. “That’s different from it being true.”

“She knows it’s not true,” Jordan said. “Sera doesn’t know it’s not true.”

“Sera is in the accommodation,” Ivory said, “believing that–”

“Believing whatever she believes,” Nina said. “Which is significantly less useful to her as leverage than what she arrived with.”

Ivory looked at Kael.

Kael had the expression of a man who’d had days to sit with this information and had arrived at a position about it.

“It was effective,” he said. “Significantly.”

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4:47 pm Ppp.

Chapter 420

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“You’re not-“Ivory started.

“It was effective,” he said again. “And it protected you specifically. Which-” he held her gaze briefly, “-I’m noting.”

Ivory looked back at the ceiling.

“She’s not innocent,” Ivory said, to the ceiling. “Nina is right. The innocence phase is concluded.”

“I like to think I’ve developed,” I said.

“You have,” Ivory said. And the words were direct and simple and without the usual distance, the specific quality of someone saying a true thing without dressing it. “You’ve developed considerably.”

“She’s going to drag someone by their hair before the year is out,” Jordan said, with the conviction of a man who’d been watching developments and had arrived at a conclusion.

“She’s going to drag someone by their hair before the year is out,” Ivory agreed, and smiled.

Not the almost-smile. Not the controlled version. The real one – the complete version that arrived when something had genuinely gotten through all the management and produced a response from the actual Ivory underneath everything else.

She smiled at me.

I sat in the chair with the rope in my lap and the pearl warm in my pocket and felt something settle in my chest that had been in the process of settling for weeks and had finally found its position.

“The healer says I need thirty-five hours,” Ivory said. “How many are left.”

“Twenty-seven,” the healer said.

“Twenty-seven,” Ivory said. “And then I want to see the wall mark.”

“Twenty-seven hours,” I said. “Then the wall mark.”

“And I want the full technical account,” she said. “Anchor status, modulation, intent framing.”

“You’ll get it,” I said.

“And someone needs to check on Alric Vesper’s arm situation,” she said. “The arm needs proper treatment even if the rest of him doesn’t deserve it. Leaving it untreated creates complications that will make the information extraction harder”

“I’ll send someone,” Nina said.

“Send someone who’s not going to “Ivory started.

“Someone appropriate,” Nina said. “Not Kael.”

“I wasn’t going to-” Kael started.

“Not Kael,” Nina said again, pleasantly.

Ivory settled back against the pillow. Reached for the paper-wrapped books with her working hand. Held them without opening them.

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14:47 pm

Chapter 420

+20 Free Coins

The healer added something to her chart.

Margo closed her notebook.

Jordan looked at the ceiling with the expression of a man who was satisfied with how the day had developed.

Kael sat in the chair and looked at Ivory with the expression he had when he was watching her and had decided not to hide that he was watching.

“Twenty-seven hours,” she said, to no one in particular. “And then the wall mark.”

“Twenty-seven hours,” I confirmed.

The clinic settled.

Outside, the pack grounds continued.

The rope stayed in my lap.

Somewhere in a corridor with a new mark on the wall, Alric Vesper was secured and being prepared for the questions that Nina was already organizing.

The list was being built.

The proper channels were moving.

And in the clinic, Ivory was going to rest for twenty-seven more hours whether she liked it or not.

I was in the chair. I was staying in it.

a/n: I ran out of words in the previous author note. Imagine if I said, the end

But damn, took ivory and Aria a long time they are definitely going to give Kael headaches.