Kael pressed his back against the cold brick wall, listening. Every heartbeat sounded too loud in his own ears. Daren crouched beside him, trembling, trying to keep his composure. Seris’s eyes scanned the street ahead, sharp and unblinking.“They’ve stationed more than I thought,” Kael muttered, voice low. “Patrols, scouts, informants. Someone knows we’re moving.”Daren swallowed hard. “Then how do we get in without being caught?”Kael’s mind raced. The safehouse wasn’t just a building. It was a network of forgotten paths, old passages beneath the city, and loopholes carved out by merchants and thieves who had survived the council’s reach for years. Every step counted, every decision could cost them their lives.“We go under,” Kael said finally. “Through the passage behind the apothecary. I mapped it last week. Nobody goes there twice.”Daren’s eyes widened. “Under? The sewers?”Kael gave him a sharp look. “If we’re spotted above, we die. Below, we vanish.”Seris moved to the entrance

Kael crouched on the edge of a tiled roof, eyes scanning the narrow street below. A courier moved with purpose, unaware he carried more than letters—he carried secrets Kael needed. Secrets that could expose the council’s entire network. Kael’s hands itched, his mind racing. Every step he had taken so far, every ally saved, every trap laid, had led to this moment.“Kael… are you sure?” Seris’s whisper came from the shadows beside him. Her eyes were sharp, scanning the rooftops above and the streets below. “We can’t risk getting caught.”Kael didn’t answer immediately. His mind traced every patrol pattern, every alley, every shadow. “We have to,” he said finally, voice low, steady. “If he delivers this, the council knows everything we’ve done. We can’t let him leave.”Daren shifted behind him, rubbing the sore muscle in his side where a splinter had nicked him last night. “I don’t like it,” he muttered. “I don’t like risking—everything.”Kael’s jaw tightened. “You never like risk. You s