By the time I get back to the strategy room, the mark on the branch is still sitting in my head, and every step through the corridor feels too loud because I can hear John’s voice under everything.
He is watching how they respond to you. He needs to split you from Ezra.
The room is not empty when I walk in, and Ezra stands at the table with Declan and Cameron, and a second map is layered over the first so that patrol shifts and weak sections sit in sharp lines.
Ezra lifts his head. “You were supposed to be in the training field.”
“I was.”
His eyes narrow. “And.”
I walk to the table and drop the carved branch onto the map.
Cameron swears under his breath and Declan leans in to study it.
Ezra does not touch it right away and just looks at it, then at me. “Where.”
“Edge of the field.
