Lucas was waiting for him in the hallway, his face tired, his hair wet from whatever walk he'd just come back from. "You heard about the spy?"
David nodded. "Kaito said someone's been talking."
Lucas fell into step beside him, his voice low. "Who? Who would do that? Who would tell the Vane family about us?"
David didn't have an answer. He thought about the people who knew about the vault, about the Expanse, about the thing in the trees. The grandmother, Kaito, Becca, Lucas, Erica, Elena, himself. That was it. That was everyone. Unless someone had been listening when they shouldn't have been listening, watching when they shouldn't have been watching.
"Maybe it wasn't one of us," he said. "Maybe someone else found out. Someone we don't know about."
Lucas shook his head slowly. "Kaito said the information came from inside the estate. Someone who's been here, someone who's seen us, someone who knows what we've been doing."
David stopped walking, looked at his friend, felt the weight of what he was saying. "That doesn't leave many options."
Lucas met his eyes, something shifting in his expression. "I know."
---
The main hall was crowded when they got there, the same people as the night before, the same tension in the air. The grandmother was at her usual place, her walking stick in her hands, her eyes moving from face to face. Kaito was beside her, standing without his cane, his posture straight, his face grim.
Becca was at the table, her shadows moving, her daggers in her belt. Erica was by the window, her bow in her hand, her eyes on the rain. Elena was between them, her face pale, her hands wrapped around a cup of coffee that had probably gone cold hours ago.
"Sit down," the grandmother said, and they sat.
Kaito moved to the center of the room, his voice steady, his eyes on David's face. "We found out who's been talking. One of the servants, a woman who's been with the estate for years. She was approached by the Vane family about a month ago, offered money, protection, a way out. She took it."
David's hands clenched on the table. "What did she tell them?"
Kaito's face was grim. "Everything.
Her name was Yana. She had worked in the Moon estate for twenty-two years, cleaning rooms and changing linens and bringing food to tables. David had passed her in the halls dozens of times without noticing her face.
Now she sat in the grandmother's study with her hands cuffed and her face wet and her body shaking. Kaito stood by the door. Becca was by the window, her daggers out. The grandmother sat across from Yana with her walking stick across her lap.
"When did they contact you?" the grandmother asked.
Yana's voice was barely there. "Three weeks ago. A man came to the gate. He said they knew about my son."
The son owed money to people who broke legs for a living. The Vane family had bought the debt.
"What did you tell them?"
Yana looked at David. "Everything. About the vault, about the Expanse, about you. They asked about you mostly. What you could do, who you trained with." She started crying again. "They said they'd kill him. My son."
David looked at her and felt nothing. Not anger, not pity, just tired.
The grandmother stared at Yana for a long time. Then she stood up. "Take her to the holding room."
Kaito led her out.
Lucas was waiting in the main hall when David came out. "We need to talk."
They walked to the garden. The rain had stopped. The sun was out. They sat on the bench near the flowers.
"We can't stay here," David said. "The Vane family knows too much."
Lucas nodded. "Where would we go?"
"I don't know."
Elena found them ten minutes later. She sat down on David's other side. "I heard about Yana."
"We're leaving," Lucas told her. "Tomorrow maybe."
Elena was quiet for a moment. "My mother used to talk about a place. A safe place, she called it. Somewhere the Phoenix Clan kept things hidden. She never told me where it was. She said I'd have to find it myself."
David looked at her. "You think it's real?"
"I think it's worth looking for."
Lucas stood up, stretched. "So we look for it. Better than sitting here waiting for the Vane family to show up."
David stood too. "Tomorrow morning. We tell the grandmother in the morning."
Elena nodded. Lucas headed back inside. David stayed in the garden for a while longer, watching the clouds break apart, listening to the water drip off the leaves.
Then he went inside to pack.