Chapter 3 | Kincade
The door closed behind Silas.
The house settled.
I didn’t.
Visible. That’s what he said. That meant they were willing to use Anna as leverage. To get me to do whatever it was they wanted.
Wouldn’t happen. Not again.
She hovered on the edge of the room, still holding her cup. Her mind was loud enough to tell me she was worried.
And angry.
I had to be ready. Silas understood what was at stake, but he couldn’t protect her the way I could.
I walked out of the parlor. I expected her to follow with questions. She didn’t. She remained.
She knew when to push and when not to.
That restraint was one of the things that terrified me most.
She trusted me to make the right call. Trusted me not to disappear into the violence that had defined most of my existence. My hands curled at my sides as I stepped into the hall, tendons pulling tight, every instinct screaming to lock the house down, to put her somewhere no one could reach her.
There was no such place anymore.
I left the manor. Walked the perimeter. Checked the old wards Edward Walker left behind. They were still intact. Designed for demons.
Edward had built these wards for a different war. A simpler one. Back when threats announced themselves with claws and fire instead of strategy and leverage. I rested my palm against the stone, feeling the faint hum of old magic beneath my skin.
It wasn’t failing.
It was obsolete.
They wouldn’t work against a threat like the Brotherhood.
There was a long history between me and Sebastian Crane. He’d been the one to send me after her in the first place. Before she knew who and what she was. When I crossed every line and broke every oath to stand with her. When I chose to fight beside her against the dark.
Our fates had been tied together for centuries.
Sebastian knew that better than anyone. He knew I’d burn down the world to keep her out of his hands. He knew I’d never willingly come back.
So, his threat was real. Silas knew it. I knew it.
Even Anna knew it.
When I rounded the corner to the front of the manor, Silas was returning, carrying two black duffels. A taxi was driving back toward the gate.
One for his personal things.
One for his weapons.
Silas was the only man I knew who carried an entire arsenal in a black duffel.
He dropped one of the bags at my feet, knelt, and unzipped it. He pushed it open, showing me the contents.
Guns, ammo, knives, zip ties, cords. He was ready for an all-out war. Then he zipped it up, grabbed it, and handed it to me.
“You’ll need that,” he said.
I eyed the other bag and instantly knew that wasn’t personal effects. It was more weapons.
“I have weapons,” I said.
“Not enough for what’s coming.” His gaze was hard, deadly.
My gaze narrowed. “What do you know that you haven’t said yet?”
“They won’t strike immediately,” he said. “Sebastian wants you off balance. He’s waiting for you to let your guard down.”
But that wasn’t going to happen now that Silas was here to warn me. I started to say this when he continued.
“They won’t come for you first. They want her.”
The words landed like a blade between my ribs.
Not because I hadn’t expected them. But because saying them out loud made the threat real in a way I couldn’t fight with force alone. I’d faced armies. Tyrannical kings. Gods who thought themselves untouchable.
None of them had ever gone after the one thing I couldn’t afford to lose.
“They won’t get her.” My hand tightened on the handles.
“They’ll try.”
That was his truth—the truth he’d ferreted out with his sources. An inevitability. Wild, hot fury bloomed in my chest. My fingers flexed on my free hand.
“Sebastian knows you’ll never bend,” he said. “That’s why he’s aiming for the one thing that keeps you standing. The one thing that will break you.”
I glanced at the manor. Her home. Her sanctuary. Then stepped closer to him. “If he touches her—”
“He will,” he said without hesitation. Without apology. “There’s already one scout on your east perimeter. Watching.”
Every muscle in me coiled tight. “Then I’ll—”
“No.” His voice was flat, final. “If you go after him, then you tip your hand. They’ll know you’re aware. Let me handle it.”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to end the threat myself. But he was right.
“I’ll deal with the immediate problem and watch your back so you can watch hers.” He held my gaze. “We need to assume the manor isn’t safe anymore. This scout won’t be the last.”
Fuck.
That meant what I’d already been thinking.
Silas picked up the duffel and entered the manor like he owned the place. I followed. Inside, there was the hum of voices. Anna talking to Piers. She came out of the parlor when she heard our footsteps.
“Silas, this is Piers. We have a room ready for you,” she said. “He’ll show you to it so you can get settled.” She motioned toward the stairs.
Quiet. Efficient. Like always.
Her gaze flicked to the duffel in his hand. Then the one in mine. Her mind was already working out the details of that.
Without a word, Silas followed the old butler up.
She waited until he was out of earshot, her gaze still fixed on the stairs.
“You’re planning,” she said.
I didn’t deny it. The evidence was in my hand. And Silas’s. She looked at me then. Her gaze was clear, focused, steady. Her expression said she wasn’t going down without a fight.
“Sebastian is planning to use me to get to you. To get you to bend,” she said.
“He can try.” My voice was short, clipped.
“He wouldn’t threaten you with me unless he thought it would work.” Her voice was cool, calm. Even though she had limited interaction with Sebastian, she understood how he operated.
“I’m not trading you for the Brotherhood.”
“No, I don’t expect you would.” There was an edge to her voice. One I hadn’t heard in a long time. “What I do expect is that you’ll go willingly if you think it keeps me out of his hands.”
“I’m not.”
The lie sat heavy on my tongue.
Because I knew myself. Knew the line I would cross if it meant keeping her alive. I’d crossed darker lines for less. The only difference now was that she saw it, too.
That didn’t make her weak.
It made her dangerous.
Her expression said otherwise. “I don’t want you to decide what I’m willing to lose.”
“Anna—”
“I faced down Lucifer. Sebastian is a cakewalk. I’ll be ready.”
We stared at each other, the truth settling between us. Her mind was loud with her decision and her refusal to back down. Still, her bold confidence was one I didn’t expect. She brushed past me, heading through to the kitchen. I knew where she was going without having to ask her.
She was coiled tight like a viper ready to strike, and she needed to work it off.
But I wasn’t sure anything could prepare me—us—for what was coming.
Sebastian Crane knew me too well. He knew I wouldn’t come willingly. Which meant he wouldn’t ask.
I understood something else with brutal clarity.
The Brotherhood wasn’t coming to negotiate.
They were coming to collect.