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"The bond's finished. I'm not arguing that." Elsie crossed into the room and perched on the end of the bed. "But a bond that's only ever been witnessed by a Titan and a healer with blood on his hands is a bond nobody's sworn to protect but the two of you. A ceremony isn't about sealing a door that's already shut. It's about putting every blade and every ounce of power in this house behind what's already true. Right now, if Lucifer finds a way to come at one of you through the other, it's just you two holding that line. After a ceremony, it's all of us. It becomes real for everyone then. Not to mention the magic of the official ceremony bonds them in certain ways. Before you ask, I’m not insane. I’ve been studying the phenomenon for years."

Abraxos felt something settle in his chest. It was an old warrior's instinct recognizing the sense in her suggestion. "You're saying it's not about the bond being incomplete. It's about it being undefended."

"That and we love a reason to party," Elsie smiled with approval. "Seriously, though, a claim without witnesses is a secret, which is the one thing the devil's always been good at prying open."

Sarah's jaw tightened, but the argument he'd sensed her building didn't come. Something steadier took its place instead. "Fine. The second we eliminate the Titan threat and whatever Lucifer's got waiting at that convergence point, we do the ceremony. But I want everyone on notice that we’re already tangled together for good and they’re expected to defend our bond."

"That's the spirit,” Elsie praised while Sarah bit into her beignet. "Amelia and I will start pulling together what we need so there's no scramble once the threat's handled. You both deserve the best of everything."

“I’m excited!” Amelia dropped her feet and clapped her hands together. "We’ll multitask, kicking Titan ass and planning a mating. First, we need to plan the trap for the Titan and the convergence point."

Elsie stood and smoothed invisible wrinkles from her jacket. "Get dressed and bring your breakfast downstairs."

“Oh, I forgot to mention I found a passage about locking the Titans in for good. You can end that threat today, Sarah,” Amelia added as she joined Elise. The pair were gone before either of them could respond.

The door clicked shut behind them. Sarah finished chewing her beignet and dropped her head against his shoulder. "Well. That escalated."

"Faster than I expected, and I've seen wars declared with less debate." Abraxos pressed his lips to her hair, breathing in flowers and sunshine. "Are you all right? With the ceremony happening so quickly?"

"Honestly?" Sarah tilted her head up to look at him, green eyes steady despite the exhaustion still shadowing them. "It's the first plan today that's made me feel like we might actually get something good out of all this, instead of just surviving it. I'll take that."

He kissed her, slow and unhurried. For the first time since this had all started, he allowed himself to savor the fact that for one stretched-out minute, nothing was trying to kill either of them. All too soon, he made himself pull back. Elsie hadn't been wrong about the clock they were working against.

They dressed in a comfortable silence that still felt new enough to marvel over. Once dressed, he grabbed the tray, and they made their way down to the war room. The map had grown another layer of pins overnight. Zander stood at its center, looking like a male who'd spent the last several hours fighting demons.

"They seem to have abandoned the port for now," Zander reported when he saw them. "Araton's squadron is still there, but Ayil's is covering another area. My warriors are rotating the watch in shifts so nobody drops from exhaustion mid-fight. That's the good news."

"I'm almost afraid to ask for the bad," Sarah said as she dropped into a chair beside Izzy. The princess had a fresh cup of coffee clutched in both hands as if it were the only thing keeping her upright.

"I think he's pulled back to concentrate on something big. It’s the only reason he would stop sending incursions to the port to divide us." Zander's jaw worked as his sapphire eyes hardened.

"He’s focused on me," Sarah blurted as she reached for a mug.

"His attention is on both of you now," Camael corrected from where he was leaning against the wall. "He knows what happened between you two last night. Whatever spy or ear he's had on this house, no doubt told him. It’s also possible that he felt it the same way I did. A completed bond changes the calculation for him."

"How?" Abraxos asked. He needed to understand exactly what target he'd just painted on both their backs.

"Because he can break a Scribe working alone," Camael explained grimly. "A Scribe anchored to a mate who's willing to give everything for her is a wall he can’t penetrate. At least not easily. He can't isolate you from Abraxos even if he physically separates the two of you. He already tried that twice and lost both times."

"Which is why he’s changing strategy," Donovan added. "He’s going to stop trying to pick you off separately. He’ll go for something bigger. Something that forces both of you into a position where the bond can't save you."

Izzy set her cup down hard enough to slosh liquid over the rim, her eyes narrowing on the map. "It’s going to involve the convergence point. The one under Angel's Alley. It’s the one Sarah's grandmother wrote about needing to be sealed from the source." She jabbed a finger at the tangle of red string pinned dead center. "If he can't get to Sarah through us, he’ll bring the fight to the one place she has to stand alone to finish the job. Right at the convergence."

Sarah's hand found Abraxos's under the table. Her fingers were cold despite the warmth of the room. "The seal has to be written where the old one's failing. Which means I have to be standing in the one spot Lucifer's spent weeks learning how to defend."

“It’s also the only place you can do the spell to lock the Titans away for good,” Amelia interjected.

"We can't let him defend the location," Zander said in a voice that carried the same flat certainty Abraxos had heard from him a hundred times before a battle. "We take the ground first. Before moonrise and his deadline. We don't let him finish gathering whatever forces he's planning to throw at us. We go in loud and early. He’ll fight on our schedule instead of his."

"That's a trap that could go both ways," Camael pointed out, though there was no argument in it, only the careful weighing of a commander who'd buried enough soldiers to never rush a plan. "If we're wrong about the timing, we're handing him exactly what he wants on a silver platter."

"We have to make sure we're not wrong," Abraxos told them.

Sarah's grip on his hand had tightened. When he looked at her, the fear had burned away into something harder. It reminded him exactly why the fates had chosen her in the first place. "Ithuriel said the seal has to be written at the source. Fine. We go to the source. But we go with every blade, every witch, every angel this house has. And we make sure that when Lucifer shows up expecting a lamb standing alone in the dark, he finds out exactly how many teeth are waiting for him instead."

Izzy’s grin turned devilish. "Now that," she said, "is a plan I can get behind."

CHAPTER 18