been a p
and catalogued everything she heard. Distant voices, low and indistinct. Footsteps on ston
back for her
and sat in it until exhaustion pulled her under somewhere around the third ho
up and t
bindings were gone. Removed while she slept. She had not heard anyone enter. That mattered. It meant
le
and frightened that she was keeping in a locke
stle with no phone, no money, no l
nd went to
gate were sparring and she watched them for a long time because the way they moved was wrong in a specific, useful way. Too fast. Too fluid. Antic
ions of the two men at the inner door. Measured th
stupid. She fil
kn
, because silence f
as careful and composed, carrying a tray that smelled of coffee and something warm beneath a clot
own without being asked. "
her move. "How long
vivid. Another one who wasn't entirely wh
pened thi
ll send for you. An hour. Maybe less." She
ithout turning. "What shoul
of real
Mara said quietly.
closed be
e middle of the
h
ritatingly good, rich and dark and exactly the right temperature, and she hated it because it made
Comfort was a cage
ore time and looked at the gate and the too-fast men a
her shoulders. Lifted her chin to the angle that had
ame forty m
Charged in a way she felt against her skin before it ev
erself. Small t
with that quiet assessing look she was already starting to recog
ght and her hands loose at her sides
look back
ly direction that
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