Chapter 15: The Permit

Lara's POV

I woke on the leather couch under a blanket that smelled like him, with the window going gray.

Cade was sitting on the edge of the desk with two torn pieces of paper in his hands.

"You were supposed to wake me in ten minutes," I said.

"You needed the sleep."

"What is that?"

He held it out.

The cedar seal. My name. A scorched corner.

I stopped breathing.

"Room nine," he said. "My housekeeper found it in the grate an hour ago."

"Gianna burned my permit."

"Tried to. It's heavy stock. It only singed."

I fit the halves together on my knee.

They matched along the tear, and the crease across the middle was the fold I had made myself, to fit the suitcase pocket.

"There's something else," Cade said.

He told me about Vittorio's letter, in order, with the price and the date and his one-word answer.

I listened to all of it.

When he finished I said, "You kept it from me for six weeks."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I didn't want you weighing yourself against a border."

"I'd have said no, too."

"I know. That's why I didn't say it for you."

He had carried that for six weeks to spare me, and I laughed.

"You wrote a single word back."

"It was enough."

"Cade Merrick," I said. "Next time you tell me first."

"Next time I tell you first."

I put the permit in my pocket.

"Breakfast is at eight," I said. "Everyone will be in the hall."

"Yes."

"Good."

The Hollow Moon breakfast is long tables and loud talk. Sixty-one people, plus the Red Sand wardens along the walls.

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