Chapter 4The Third Crystal

The safehouse smelled of rust and desperation.

Sable paced the narrow space between the cot and the wall, the crystal heavy in her jacket pocket. Kestrin stood by the boarded window, one hand pressed to his healing wound, watching nothing.

"We return it," he said flatly.

"And then what?" She stopped. "Rourke kills Tamsin anyway. Or he injects her with more serum and turns her into one of his soldiers. You know this."

"I know she has forty-seven minutes left."

The communicator sat on the crate between them like a ticking bomb. Sable's hands trembled—from exhaustion, from the healing drain still pulling at her bones. She'd barely stabilized Kestrin. She had nothing left for a fight.

But she had a mind.

"He doesn't know what we know," she said slowly. "About the sacrifices. About Vance's game."

Kestrin's jaw tightened. "What are you suggesting?"

"That we meet him. Pretend to hand over the crystal. Use the confusion to grab Tamsin and run."

"He'll have enforcers everywhere."

"Then we make sure the confusion is memorable."

A beat of silence. Then Kestrin's lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile. "You're insane."

"You hired insane."

He pulled the communicator from his pocket. "Then let's make a deal with the devil."

---

The warehouse sat at the edge of Cold Run territory, a skeletal structure of rusted beams and broken skylights. Moonlight bled through the gaps, painting the concrete floor in pale stripes.

Rourke stood at the center, flanked by two enforcers. Behind him, a gurney.

Tamsin lay strapped to it, her skin gray, the black veins crawling up her throat like roots seeking water. Her eyes were open—barely—and when she saw Kestrin, she tried to smile.

She failed.

"You're early." Rourke spread his arms. "Admirable. Most mercenaries let the clock run down to negotiate."

Kestrin walked forward, the crystal in his open palm. It caught the moonlight, refracting it into three shards of color. "One hour was generous. I figured you'd give me thirty minutes before you started injecting her."

"Tempting. But I'm a patient man."

Sable stayed three steps behind, her hands shoved in her pockets, her focus on Tamsin. The serum was moving fast—she could feel it through the bond, a cold poison threading through Tamsin's veins. Her heart was stuttering. Her wolf was drowning.

*Hold on,* Sable thought, reaching out with her healing. *Just a little longer.*

A thread of warmth left her. Not much. Just enough to slow the serum's spread. Tamsin's breath hitched, her eyes finding Sable's.

Rourke noticed nothing. He was watching Kestrin. "You know what that crystal costs, don't you? To use it properly."

"I know."

"Blood from a willing bond. Power freely surrendered." Rourke circled slowly, his boots echoing. "And a life. A death given without coercion." He smiled. "You think you can sacrifice enough to save her?"

"I think I can try."

"Admirable." Rourke stopped. "But you're not here to sacrifice anything. You're here to run."

He snapped his fingers.

The enforcers moved.

Not from the shadows—from above. Three of them dropped from the rafters, landing between Kestrin and the gurney. Two more emerged from behind crates. Sable's heart slammed against her ribs.

"Did you think I wouldn't plan for betrayal?" Rourke laughed. "I've been playing this game since before you were born, Hale."

Kestrin didn't flinch. "Then you know I never show up without a backup plan."

He threw the crystal.

Not at Rourke—at the skylight.

The glass shattered. The crystal arced through the broken pane, catching the moonlight, and disappeared into the night.

Rourke's face went white. "You fool. That's the only—"

"It's not." Kestrin drew his knife. "Because I know what Vance did with the third one."

Rourke's expression flickered. Confusion. Then fury.

The enforcers attacked.

Kestrin moved like water, flowing between them, his blade finding throats and kidneys. Sable grabbed the gurney, yanking it toward the exit. Tamsin moaned, the serum fighting her healing.

"Stay with me," Sable hissed.

An enforcer lunged.

Sable caught his wrist, felt the tattoo on his forearm—Vance's symbol, a coiled serpent eating its tail. She twisted. The bone snapped. He screamed.

Kestrin appeared beside her, covered in blood. "Go. Now."

They ran.

The warehouse exploded into chaos. Enforcers poured from every shadow. Sable pushed the gurney with everything she had, her legs burning, her vision swimming. The healing was draining her faster than she could replenish.

She stumbled.

Kestrin caught her, one arm around her waist, the other shoving the gurney forward. "Don't you dare collapse."

"Feeling a little faint."

"That's not an option."

They burst through the warehouse doors onto the rooftop. The fire escape hung thirty feet away, a rusted ladder leading down into darkness.

Behind them, bootsteps.

Kestrin shoved the gurney toward the edge. "Get on. Now."

Sable climbed onto the gurney, wrapping herself around Tamsin's limp body. Kestrin pushed.

They fell.

The fire escape caught them with a screech of tortured metal. Kestrin landed hard, his leg buckling. He didn't stop. He grabbed the gurney and dragged it down the ladder, down, down, into the sewer grate at the bottom.

They fell through into darkness.

---

The safe room was a concrete box beneath the city, hidden behind a false wall in the sewer tunnel. Kestrin had stocked it years ago, never thinking he'd use it for this.

Sable woke to the drip of water and the weight of revelation.

Kestrin sat across from her, his face carved from stone. Tamsin lay between them, still unconscious, the black veins slowly receding.

"How long was I out?"

"Twenty minutes." His voice was hollow. "Tamsin's stable. The serum is retreating."

"Good. That's good."

"It's not."

She sat up slowly, her head pounding. "What happened? I remember the warehouse. The enforcer. He had Vance's tattoo. He said something to you before he died."

Kestrin didn't answer.

"Kestrin."

He looked at her, and she saw something she'd never seen in his eyes before.

Fear.

"We can't use the third crystal," he said.

"Why not?"

"Because it's inside Tamsin." His voice cracked. "Vance implanted it in her chest. Surgically. To activate it, she has to die."