Chapter 143: Let Her Dangle
The late afternoon sun slanted through the tall windows of the imperial palace’s eastern wing, gilding every surface in pale gold, though no one inside the office seemed particularly inclined to admire the view.
Caelan sat behind the wide blackwood desk, sleeves rolled to his forearms, his signature pen stilling mid-signature as the door clicked open. The silence in the room was not idle; it was the type carved out by efficiency and too many years of ruling by precision rather than sentiment.
Sirius leaned against the far wall, arms crossed, posture deceptively relaxed. Lucius, meanwhile, paced once in front of the desk, as if trying to shake off the weight of too many threads converging.
The messenger bowed once and handed over a sealed file. Caelan broke the wax with a flick of his thumb, flipped it open, and read the first page in silence.
Then the corner of his mouth curled—just slightly.
"They reactivated Misty Kilmer’s burner," he said. "It was buried under a layer of false IDs and a three-month dormant period, but our team bypassed the last encryption thirty minutes ago."
Lucius stilled. "And?"
Caelan turned the folder around, sliding it across the desk toward his sons. "It’s filled with messages. Every one of them from Odin."
Sirius pushed off the wall in a fluid motion and came to stand beside Lucius, both of them scanning the first few lines as Caelan continued.
"Whoever Odin is," Caelan said, voice low but crisp, "he’s furious about Misty’s delays. They want Lucas immediately. No more waiting. And if she can’t deliver—" He tapped the line on the report with the back of his pen. "They’ll use Ophelia instead. Her and Misty both."
Lucius’s spine straightened, the tension so sharp it could cut steel. "They’d force them into carrying it out?"
Caelan didn’t blink. "I don’t know. But we can use it."