“Because I shut down the corridor and the Syndicate wants it reopened. The family was delivered to force the issue. I’m refusing. I can’t keep them here. When the Syndicate comes, they’ll take the family. I can’t send them anywhere that the Syndicate can find them. Ravenclaw has the standing and the protection to keep magic-blood wolves safe openly. I don’t know anywhere else that does.”
A longer silence.
“You’re serious about refusing them.”
“Yes.”
“You understand what that means.”
“Yes.”
“All right. We’ll take the family. I’ll have a team at a rendezvous point tomorrow morning. I’ll text you the location.”
“Thank you.”
“Garrett.”
“Yes?”
“If you’re serious about this, you’re going to need help you don’t have.”
“I know.”
“We can talk about that when the family is safe.”
“Understood.”
“One more thing…”
“Yes?”
“Briar was there today. She came back quiet. Quieter than usual. I’m not asking for details. But whatever is between the two of you is likely to affect what we’re about to do. So I need to know where it stands.”
The storage room. Her hands. The warmth I couldn’t place. Her pushing my hand away when I started to ask.
“It stands at unfinished,” I say.
“That’ll have to do for now. But there are questions that will eventually need answers.”
“Sure.”
“All right. I’ll handle my end. You handle yours. Stay alive long enough for the rest of it to matter.”
The line goes dead.
I stand at the fence line with the phone in my hand. The family is still by the cage. Dawes has brought water in a bucket — the kind of improvisation you make when you don’t have time to find the right container — and the mother is drinking from scooped hands. The children are holding onto her.
I walk back and stand beside the father.
“Ravenclaw will take you. A team will meet us at a rendezvous point tomorrow morning. You’ll be escorted north. You’ll be safe there.”
His shoulders don’t drop. The relief hasn’t reached him yet. But the line of his jaw softens — the first human softening I’ve seen on him since I got to the cage.
“Tonight, we have food. Beds. Your children can sleep inside.”
The mother looks at him. He nods. She looks at me.
“Thank you.”