“Why didn’t you call?” Isra cried. “I could’ve had the covey down here in no time! We promised we’d help!”

“Whoa, whoa,” Julia said, “we took care of those guys easy! We’d already prepared for something like this.”

“Easy?” Asmeret’s shock shifted from Llamrei to their sister. “Someone died! Bluebell nearly got shot, Silver escaped, and Phoebe…”

“Is alive! And Silver’s back inside her, asleep. I checked.” Her gaze shifted down, “I hate that he killed someone. But you weren’t there, we all had to fight. Maybe he was defending himself this time.”

“The death of that man—excusable or not—will make things complicated for Quill. And for the Society, since we’ve agreed to officially partner with you. There’s gonna be loads of paperwork, Julia.” Grant said. She sighed.

“It’s not safe here. I barely feel safe in Grand Shore,” Asmeret said. “He knows about us.”

“I was about to say,” Cat spoke up, “Avernus’ defenses barely held. We were anticipating an attack, but not from multiple sides. What’s more, we showed quite a lot of our hand to Connell, while we still barely know anything about him. He’ll come back with more firepower- he’s certainly capable of it.”