(Isla)
The response came the following afternoon.
Caius found me in the library and handed me the document without saying anything first. I took it and read it with him beside me.
Brent had accepted.
Every condition. No objections noted, no requests for amendments, no pushback on any of the restrictions. Just a signature at the bottom of the page in handwriting I recognized from years of watching him sign his name to things in Ashcrest when he thought no one was paying attention.
I read it twice.
Then I folded it and handed it back to Caius.
"That's it then," I said.
"That's it," he said.
I sat down in the nearest chair and looked out the window. Wolves crossed the grounds in both directions, each of them busy with whatever the day had brought. Nothing had changed out there. Nothi
