“Everyone select a weapon or two,” Gabriel continued. He handed the machete to Jadren. “I believe you had your eye on this one.”

Jadren took it warily. “But I lost the bet.”

Gabriel shrugged and grinned. “I always planned to let you have it.”

Scowling and muttering under his breath, Jadren unbuckled his belt to contrive a way to carry the big blade. Alise, playing with a pair of daggers she’d selected, rolled her eyes at him.

“I’m a decent archer,” Iliana said, taking up the quiver of arrows, “if there’s a bow to go with these.”

Gabriel pointed his chin at the several recurve bows he’d asked his hunters to lend for the cause. “One of those should work for you.”

Han had, meanwhile, selected a sword and short dagger and was testing them with a martial form that Jadren eyed with mixed envy and irritation. Gabriel distributed the remaining enchanted weapons to the assembly of volunteers—a mix of wizards, familiars, and nonmagical folk—explaining to all how the enchantment worked.

“Han and Iliana will be the bait,” he told the group. “They’ll appear to be trying to escape through the orchard, where we can hide ourselves in the trees. Once the hunters encircle these two, we’ll surround them in turn and take them out.”

“I don’t think Iliana needs to be there,” Han said with hard-jawed defiance. “Not on the ground. Let her hide in a tree with the bow and arrows, and I’ll play bait alone. You don’t need both of us.”

“I am not leaving you alone to face the hunters,” Iliana retorted with ferocity, her color high. “What if something goes wrong?”

“Exactly!” Han shot back. “If something goes wrong, I want you well away from the fighting.”

“I’m not helpless, Han.” Iliana waved the bow at him. “And I didn’t defy the Convocation for you to sit idly by while you risk your life.”

“Same.” Han returned her glare, then opened his arms. Iliana flung herself against him with a sob, and he held her close, stroking her long red curls. He met Gabriel’s gaze over her shoulder. “Lord Phel will protect us.” He made it a question and a demand, and Gabriel nodded slowly. A promise.

“The hunters grow closer,” he told the group. “It’s time to set our ambush and banish these abominations.”

Jadren whistled a jaunty tune. “This will be fun.”

The orchard he’d selected to set their trap was the most mature in the vicinity of House Phel, with the tallest trees and densest foliage, but Gabriel still felt exposed. He didn’t much care for sitting idly by while Iliana and Han pretended to be collapsed in exhaustion in plain sight below, even if it was his plan. Waiting, never his favorite activity, wore on him with slow drips of rising restless anxiety.

Worse, sitting in silence, with nothing to occupy his thoughts, meant that he couldn’t suppress thoughts about Nic and what she might be enduring at Convocation Center. When she’d been taken, no one had been sure whether Gabriel would ever wake. Could she feel that he was alive, awake, and healthy? Did she have faith that he’d rescue her, or was she facing the despair of captivity and grief that she’d lost him?