Page 78 of Heart of the Rebel Mate

I can't put this on her.

Not when she already carries so much.

I exhale sharply and set the comms device down, my hands clenching into fists.

I have to deal with this myself.

I force my gaze to the maps spread across my desk. The summit is days away. The Council will be vulnerable, gathered in one place. This is what matters.

Not Adrian. Not Isla.

Not whatever tangled mess is tightening in my chest.

I steel myself and pick up a pen.

Focus.

Because if we fail, none of this will matter.

The meeting is tense before Isla even opens her mouth.

We're gathered in the main war room, a cavernous space deep within the cave system. The air is damp, the lanterns flickering as shadows stretch across the jagged rock walls. Maps and strategic notes are pinned haphazardly to a board, and the table in the center is covered in scrawled battle plans, half-empty cups of stale coffee, and a handful of weapons.

Everyone is exhausted. The summit is days away, and we still don't have a solid plan to infiltrate it.

That's when Isla steps forward.

She places both hands on the table as she scans the room, the dim light casting sharp angles across her face. She waits just long enough for the silence to settle before speaking.

"The problem with the original plan is that it assumes we can breach security without triggering an immediate lockdown," she says, her voice smooth, confident. "That's wishful thinking. The Council won't hesitate to shut everything down at the first sign of trouble. Once that happens, we'll lose any chance of getting close to the delegates."

Murmurs ripple through the room. Cassian folds his arms, skeptical. Ethan leans forward, frowning, but listening. Adrian?—

I don't look at him.

I refuse to give him even a glance.

Isla continues, unfazed. "We need a controlled disruption. Something that forces them to shift their security measures without realizing they're doing it for us."

She reaches into a satchel and pulls out a rough schematic. "The Council has been using an old decommissioned relay station for communications in the area. It's off-grid, lightly guarded. If we take it out, they'll reroute all summit security feeds to their secondary channels. That gives us a small window where their surveillance will be focused outward instead of inward. We slip in during that window."

The logic is undeniable.

It's also risky as hell.

Cassian shakes his head. "And you're suggesting we let you handle the relay station? That we put our entire mission in the hands of someone we barely know?"

The tension in the room spikes. Isla doesn't flinch.

"I'm suggesting you let the person with the most experience handling Council systems do what they do best," she says smoothly. "Unless you'd rather fumble around with outdated blueprints and hope for the best."

Cassian bristles, but Ethan interjects before he can argue. "She's not wrong. If we had someone else with her skill set, we'd already be using them."

A few heads nod in agreement.

And then?—

"I think it's a solid plan," Adrian says, voice measured.

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