“He accessed the archive two days ago. Zero flagged it this morning, which is approximately twenty hours too late to do anything useful with the information.”
I run a hand over my face. “He sent it to her directly.”
“Yes. He is trying to fracture the protection from the inside. If she stops trusting the people around her…”
“She becomes easier to isolate.”
“Yes,” Azriel says.
The silence between us contains several things. I let them sit there.
“You should have told her,” I say.
“I know that now,” he says quietly.
“You knew it before. You made the choice that not telling her was best for her, and you were wrong. She is going to forgive youeventually, but you’ll have to let her be unforgiving first, and you are not going to have to manage that, Azriel. You are going to have to let it land.”
Another silence.
“You’re giving me relationship advice,” Azriel says.
I’m giving you the only advice that works for people who have survived what she has. They know when you are managing them. They have been managed by people with bad intentions their whole lives, and they are very good at feeling the structure of it. The only thing that works is the truth.”
He’s quiet for a long time.
“I know,” he says finally. I know that. I just. I wanted to protect her from it.
“I know. So did I.”
We sit with that.
“What is Victor’s next move?” I ask because the conversation has been personal long enough, and there is work to be done.
“He has made contact with three more names from the list. He is building something. Valen thinks he is planning something we will have no control over.”
“Timeline?”
“Days. Less, possibly.”
“I need to see the full file,” I say. “Everything Zero has. And I need Valen to stop managing the Order’s surveillance feed. Let them see what I’m doing. All of it.”
Azriel goes very still on the other end of the line. “Saint. If Silas sees?—”
“Fuck Silas,” I say. “I need you to let him do it.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor is not going to stop moving until he has something to move against. The best target I can give him is me.”
The silence that follows is a long one. “You are going to let him come for you,” Azriel says.
“I’m going to make it very easy for him to come for me. And then I’m going to finish this.”
“And the Order?”
Let me worry about the Order. I only answer to the Consortium.”
“Saint.”