Jake sighed as Dan shuddered back into human form. Audrey stepped forward, her bronze eye scanning Shawn's singed clothing. "Sorry—I couldn't keep Teris there longer," she said, kneeling to check Shawn's minor burns.
They had fled through one of the hundreds of tunnels that stitched the surface to the Underground city. Jake peeled off the snow-bunny mask; smoke had rimmed the sockets of his eyes with black. "Don't worry. You and Teris did well. I should be the one saying sorry." His voice was rough from smoke and adrenaline.
Shawn frowned at the mention of the fire. "Who was the firestorm?" he asked while Audrey fussed over Dan.
"Thalia Falmil." Jake's answer came slowly, the name settling oddly in his mouth. The memory of her — the heat, the controlled fury, the way she'd let him go — nagged at him with an odd, heavy familiarity. "She… let me go. I don't know why."
"Thalia Falmil let you go?" Shawn repeated, curiosity sharpening his tone. Jake nodded, replaying the strange exchange in his head as if it might reveal itself.
"We didn't get Borris," Audrey said, blunt and practical. Her good eye met Jake's. "That's fine. Forrest is the prize. He'll panic after this — we should strike while he's off balance." Her voice had the edge of someone already mapping moves on a board.
Jake rubbed the bridge of his nose and slid down the tunnel wall until he was sitting on cold stone. His ears flattened against his skull. "Damn it," he muttered. "I let my emotions get the better of me." The confession was small, almost swallowed by the tunnel's damp hush.
"Aye," Shawn said. "But Borris is one fewer pawn to worry about. Dangerous thorn later, maybe — but gone now."
Audrey looked between them, then turned to Jake with that frankness he both loved and hated. "We aren't your lackeys. We're your friends. We went in with you even when it was reckless." She shrugged; it was a small, steady thing.
Her words washed over him. For a moment, his mind went blank, and then Elena's face popped up in his thoughts — a warmth in the dark moment — and panic nudged the edge of his chest. Did she make it home? He dared to ask and pushed the question outward.
"Vantim, could you find Elena? If she has a message, bring it back," Jake said without looking up.
Audrey didn't hesitate. She pulled up her sleeve and spoke, the syllables soft and practiced. "Valga mo vi."
Vantim peeled out of the inked tendrils on her forearm, coalesced, and hovered, flapping his wings. Shawn tossed her a pen. Audrey unrolled a scrap of paper and, with Dan lifting his arm to steady her, began to write. When she was done, she tied the note to Vantim's leg as he perched on her arm; Vantim launched and slipped low through the tunnel.
Audrey glanced back and offered a small, grateful nod. "Alright," Jake said, pushing himself up. "To follow Elena's plan, we need to take out Forrest legally. We've got the ship manifests, and I've already got people working them. Audrey—did you make that deal with the captain?"
"Yup. He's our in." Audrey's smile was sharp with anticipation. "When do we spring the trap?"
Jake paced once, tail flicking with a restless energy. "After this attack and after Gellen's admission. Forrest will either run or hide deeper. I've got notes on him — places he doesn't want anyone poking around. He's more brazen than his brother."
"So he'll probably hide," Shawn said, hefting his axe. "One of those places will be Warehouse Seven."
"He's got a shipment running," Audrey added, already seeing the timeline Jake was building. "He'll want to inspect it. I'd say in a week or so. That's when we strike."
The others nodded. Jake inhaled, steadying himself with the plan. "After Elena replies, send her the details. Tell her we've got a lead. And — Captain Hale gave you access, right?"
Audrey's single eye glittered. She nodded.
~~~~~
Thalia froze — her mouth parted, words lost somewhere between disbelief and awe. Elena couldn't bring herself to meet her gaze. Her eyes stayed fixed on Thimil, her thumb tracing the cool edge of the blade's hilt. The weight of what she had just confessed pressed down on her chest like armor she could no longer bear to wear. Thalia already figured out that Jake was her shadow — but not this. No one else could know this. And yet, for the first time, Elena felt relief ripple through her — a quiet, trembling kind of peace in finally telling someone of her own blood.
"Y-you and Jake are… together?" Thalia's voice cracked, her composure slipping for the first time in years.
Elena nodded, small and fragile. Leo stood motionless behind her, the last traces of golden light fading from his body like the dying shimmer of a spell.
"Elena, this is—" Thalia's words faltered. She leaned back, as if distance could help her process what she'd just heard. "You and Jake Lockvry?" Her tone was one of quiet disbelief. "The heir to one of the five families and you, the only heir of the Falmil house?" She breathed out, a disbelieving laugh breaking the silence. "Even rumors of this would—"
"I know, Auntie." Elena's voice broke, soft and small. "I know the risk. But I am in debt to him." Her throat tightened, and her eyes brimmed with unshed tears. "He's saved me so many times… I've lost count."
Her words trembled, memories surfacing one by one — Jake's hand pulling her from danger, his voice steady when hers shook, the way he bled for her without hesitation.
"Explain," Thalia said, her tone sharp but her eyes gentle, full of the worry only family could hold.
Elena swallowed and nodded. "You know how I always escaped those arranged marriages?"
Thalia's brows lifted slightly. "Don't tell me—"
"Yes," Elena whispered through a shaky laugh. "That was him. He'd find ways to expose the suitors' secrets, to twist gossip just enough that they'd withdraw before the deal was sealed."
Thalia chuckled softly despite herself, shaking her head. "I should've known. Every time a scandal broke out, I thought, 'That's odd timing.'"
Elena smiled faintly through her tears. "He's taken me to the Underground, too—more than once. Every time, he'd stay close — making sure no one touched me, no one even looked at me wrong. I never feared down there, not with him beside me."
"Not exactly the place for a heir of the seven to stroll unguarded," Thalia murmured, though there was affection in her tone. Her gaze softened further, seeing the release in her niece's face — the kind of unburdening that comes only from years of secrecy breaking apart.
"We've been friends for ten years," Elena said quietly, a small tremor in her voice. "He's been there since before I even realized what he meant to me."
Thalia blinked — once, then twice — as if trying to grasp the scope of what Elena had carried alone. Ten years. That wasn't a secret. That was a lifetime of silence.
"Elena…" she began, her voice trembling now, "you've been holding this for—"
Elena interrupted softly. "We've been together for a month."
Thalia exhaled a long, heavy breath and pressed a hand to her temple. "Gods, child, you're dropping stones faster than I can catch them."
Elena laughed weakly — a short, broken sound. "Lily said the same thing."
Thalia crossed the room and sat beside her, the Flame of Helver suddenly just a woman, an aunt, a sister who'd seen too much fire in her lifetime. Without another word, she pulled Elena close.
And Elena collapsed against her.
The sob tore through her like something she'd kept buried for years. All the walls she'd built — the mask of composure, the careful diplomacy, the quiet burden of her lineage — shattered in that moment. She wept into Thalia's shoulder, trembling with everything she'd held back: the terror of the assassination, the memory of Jake's blood on her hands, the fear she'd lose him to vengeance before she could ever tell him how much he meant to her.
Thalia said nothing. She simply held her, her warmth steady and unyielding, like a hearth against the cold.
When Elena's sobs finally softened to quiet breaths, Thalia brushed a strand of hair from her face and said softly, "You've inherited your mother's courage… and her recklessness."
Elena smiled faintly through the tears. "Maybe a little of yours, too."
Thalia laughed quietly at that — a low, knowing sound. "Maybe so. But listen to me, fox." Her voice gentled, but her eyes gleamed with fire. "If you're going to love him, then do it with both eyes open. The world won't be kind to either of you when it finds out."
Elena nodded, the words striking deep — not as a warning, but as truth.
"I know," she whispered. "But for once, I don't care what the world wants."
And Thalia, the Flame of Helver, said nothing more — only pulled her niece closer, holding her in silence as the firelight flickered between them, two women bound by blood, secrets, and the dangerous, beautiful weight of love.
Leo, finally unfrozen, watched the two in silence, then a knock at a window grabbed his attention. He looked out and saw a hawk with a letter tied around its ankle.