Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 565

Chapter 565

ARIA

"She maintained what was left of it," Nina said. "It was breaking down along with everything else."

"I'm not going to force her," Kael said, and the way he said it communicated that the question had been answered and we were moving.

Jordan made a small sound.

Kael looked at him.

"Nothing," Jordan said.

"Jordan," Kael said.

"I just—" Jordan paused, with the expression of someone choosing their words carefully. "Ivory's been making a lot of decisions lately on the grounds that she knows what's necessary and everyone else's input isn't required." He looked at the table. "That's consistent with who she is. It's also been more frequent recently."

The room processed this.

"She's preparing for something," Elite said.

Elite didn't say things that weren't precisely what they meant. The room absorbed this accordingly.

"The root removal," I said.

"She keeps taking excuses to go to the lab," Nina said. "Alone."

"The root removal architecture is complex," I said. "She said it requires specific preparation—"

"It does," Kael said. "But she's been in that lab for—" he stopped. "More hours than the compound work requires."

Silver said something in my chest that she didn't put into words. Just a warmth with an edge to it, the specific silver-edged feeling she got when there was something she knew and wasn't sure how to communicate without more information.

*What,* I said.

*Nothing specific,* she said. *Just — watch.*

"What's the current threat timeline," I said, redirecting, because the thing about Ivory in the lab was sitting on my chest in a way I couldn't fully examine yet and the meeting needed to move.

Elite opened the assessment sheets.

"The network pulled back after the dungeon," Elite said. "Intelligence confirms reduced activity on the border approaches in the past forty-eight hours."

"They're regrouping," Jordan said.

"Or they're being strategic," Elite said.

"Both," Jordan said.

"The full moon is eleven days out," Elite said. "If they intend another root activation attempt, they need casting capacity in position before then. We've seen no movement that suggests that positioning is happening."

"Which is unexpected," Kael said.

"Yes," Elite said. "After Ivory's message, we expected an escalation. Not a withdrawal."

"The withdrawal is the escalation," Jordan said. Everyone looked at him. "We declared war and they went quiet. That's not retreat. That's patience. Whatever they're planning, they think they have time for it."

"What could they have time for," I said.

Jordan turned a page in his intelligence file. "We know Vela was one of their primary casting operatives for the root activation mechanism. With Vela gone, the specific casting structure she'd developed for the full moon window has to be rebuilt by someone with equivalent knowledge. That takes time."

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