Page 216 of Problematic

Liv

The strategy room occupied the floor beneath the penthouse. Half the wall screens worked. The others flashed between static and security footage from damaged districts. Vale stood at the main table with his throat bandaged and one eye swollen. Kalon sat beside him while a medic stitched the cut near his hairline. Sam paced near the windows with her phone pressed against her ear, fire sparking over her fingers each time the call dropped. Mandi had acquired a clean blazer from somewhere, though she still had dried blood across one cheek.

Maps covered the table. Red markers were pressed into the northern border, Angelfall, Circeville, and the roads feeding into New Abaddon.

He stopped beside the chair to his right and rested one hand on the back. For a second I expected him to pull it out and decide where I belonged again, because Lux had spent weeks doing exactly that. Apartments. Jobs. Safer streets. A bedroom in his tower, every option beautifully packaged before he handed it to me.

Instead, he left the chair where it was.

“Do you want to sit here?”

The stupid little question hit harder than it had any right to. I hooked my fingers over the chair and pulled it out myself. “Yeah. I do.”

Lux took the seat beside mine.

Mandi noticed too. Her grin made me nervous. Vale waited until Lux and I sat before beginning. “The tower is secure above the service levels. Forty-three southern soldiers surrendered. Seventeen remained barricaded in the lower garage, and another group escaped through the municipal tunnels before we restored surveillance.”

“The soldiers outside?” Lux asked.

“Two companies occupy the eastern plaza. They lost contact with their command after Scarn fell, though they refused to disarm.”

“Close the streets around them.”

“Already done.”

“Angelfall?”

Kalon answered, “Daniel’s unit is holding the northern side of the crossing. The South controls the checkpoint and the ward station. They have artillery behind the freight warehouses.”

Sam ended her call and pressed two fingers against her mate mark. “Daniel is alive. He caught shrapnel in his shoulder, and he is furious I entered the tower without him.”

“He’ll recover?” I asked.

“Yes.” Her mouth tightened. “Assuming I don’t kill him when he starts explaining why my plan was dangerous.”

“That sounds like a healthy relationship,” Mandi said.

Sam flipped her off.

Vale enlarged the map around Circeville. “The freight route remains occupied. Scarn’s people destroyed two bridges before communications failed, and southern units control the fuel depot. No commercial traffic gets through until we reclaim both.”

“What happened to Scarn’s government?” I asked.

“Nothing clean.” Vale folded his arms. “His generals are blaming one another. Three Southern Area Lords deny knowing about the invasion. Two have pulled troops toward their own borders. Another is moving forces north under the claim he intends to restore order.”

“He intends to take Scarn’s territory,” Lux said.

Vale nodded. “Which means he might strike Angelfall before we retake it.”

Lux studied the map. I felt his first answer form through the bond. March south. Kill the replacement. Take every road before anyone else touches it. His fingers curled against the table. “Close all northern routes, stop all incoming resources to the South,” he said. “No weapons, fuel, or food move south through northern territory. Offer surrender to every unit trapped above the border. Anyone who disarms receives medical care, protection, and transport home. Anyone who refuses loses the option.”

Vale’s eyebrows lifted.

Mandi leaned toward me. “Was that restraint?”

“Don’t scare it away,” Vale whispered through his teeth.

Lux ignored us. “Rotate Guard units every six hours. I want the civilian shelters open before the fighting reaches another district.”