Page 188 of Dark Night of the Soul

“Is this about the manor?” I asked.

“Yes.”

He placed the case on his lap, flicked the latches and opened it. Anna returned carrying a steaming mug. He took it from her, wordlessly, took a sip and then set it on the table.

“This looks serious,” she said, eyeing the open case on his lap. She gave me a questioning glance.

“It is,” Silas said. “You’ll want to be sitting down.”

Her brows drew together, fighting the urge to snark back. Instead, she took the seat next to me and waited.

Silas pulled papers from the case, then spread them out on the table in front of him.

“That looks like the floor plan of the manor,” she said. And she didn’t sound pleased.

“Yes,” he agreed.

She looked from it to me. I knew where this was going. And she wasn’t going to like it.

“The manor was severely compromised with all the devices. After the sweep, I made some decisions,” Silas said.

He didn’t say my name, but it was there anyway—decisions. Plural. Without orders. On my ground.

“There was virtually no security. Piers told me you dismissed the guard at the front gate.”

Her posture went rigid. “Yes, I cut back the staff after my uncle died. There were so many people in and out, it was becoming a nuisance.”

A security nightmare, more like.

“And he also told me there was no control over when and where packages were delivered. Anyone could walk up to the front and inside at any given time,” Silas continued.

I watched her face. She wasn’t happy with this information. Like the realization settled deep, and she hated it.

“Okay, so, security was lacking. But I had—” she motioned my direction, “and others.”

Others. I knew who she was referring to—Darius, Sariel, and any number of people who came and went when they pleased. And when she was traveling, she never gave it another thought. It was always about the next clue, the next destination, the next relic.

And that was on me, too. I should have seen it. Should have fixed it.

The war had been different then. We’d been hunting. Now we were being hunted.

“Wasn’t enough,” Silas said.

He was blunt. Never one to mince words. Never had been. We’d gotten lucky.

Silas leaned forward. “I installed a guard shack here.” He pointed to the front gate that opened onto the main road. “Manned twenty-four/seven. No one gets in without an appointment or a damn good reason.”

“A guard shack?”

“Yes. Cameras on each exterior door including the outer buildings. Workout space. Stables. Garage. Chapel—”

“There’s a chapel?” she interrupted. The color had drained from her face. Less fear than the sudden realization of what else lived on the property.

Silas’s gaze flicked up to hers then. “Do you realize how large the estate is, Anna?”

She was silent for a moment, thinking. “I knew it was big, but—”

“One hundred and ten acres,” he replied, unflappable. “That doesn’t include the forest area the Fae claimed.”