The plan was simple. Plant documents in the tunnel—old ones, from the 1847 correspondence between Cassius and Aldric's ancestor. Let Marcus Valerius find them. Let him conclude that the activity in the tunnel was the echo of an ancient binding, not a new alliance.
Kael and Lyra executed it together. Three nights after Marcus's proposal, they returned to the tunnel. The symbols were still dark. The altar was still whole. The name chamber was silent.
They placed the documents in a niche near the second altar—the broken one, now restored. Old paper. Faded ink. Cassius's letter to Aldric Shadowbane, and the refusal that had followed.
"If he finds this," Lyra said, "he'll know my father reached out to the wolves. That could destroy him politically."
"Your father agreed to this. He knows the risk."
"He's trying to protect us."
"I know." Kael took her hand. "We're trying to protect everyone."
They left the tunnel and returned to the surface. The next day, Kael watched from a distance as Marcus Valerius and his enforcers entered the tunnel entrance. An hour later, they emerged. Marcus was holding the documents.
That evening, Lyra called.
"He found them. He's confused. He doesn't understand why my father would have reached out to the wolves, or why the wolves would have refused."
"What did you tell him?"
"That I didn't know. That my father keeps secrets. That maybe the activity in the tunnel was something old waking up and going back to sleep."
"And he believed you?"
"I don't know. But he's leaving tomorrow. The investigation is closed."
Kael exhaled. "It worked."
"For now. But he'll be back. And next time, he won't just be investigating the tunnel. He'll be investigating me."
"Then we'll be ready."
They were quiet for a moment. The weight of what they'd done—the lies, the planted evidence, the alliance that grew stronger every day—settled between them.
"I meant what I said," Kael said. "If you need to leave, I'll go with you."
"I know."
"Do you want to?"
Lyra was silent for a long time. "I don't know what I want. Except this. Us. Whatever we are."
"We're something," Kael said. "That's enough for now."