The Alpha King stopped smiling when twenty-three rejected Omegas walked into his mating ball wearing ribbons that were supposed to mean they had been forgotten.

The ventilation shafts beneath Iron Ridge were a claustrophobic nightmare.

Heat radiated off the stone walls from the massive coal furnaces below, filling the narrow passages with choking dark smoke. Grace and her team crawled silently on hands and knees, their movements disciplined and precise. Months of rigorous training under the royal captains had transformed the malnourished survivors of Moon Hall into deadly, ghost-like infiltrators.

Below them, through iron grates, they could see hundreds of Crimson Pack mercenaries drinking ale and sharpening dark iron blades, blissfully unaware that the "weak rejects" were crawling directly above their heads.

"Stop," Grace whispered, halting the line.

Through a grate ahead, she spotted two high-ranking commanders standing over a massive wooden trapdoor sealed with heavy iron padlocks.

"The granary," Maya whispered, her eyes lighting up. "It’s intact! They haven't burned it!"

"They won't burn it until they know they’re losing," Grace noted softly. "Look at those guards. They carry the keys to the main gate’s winch chamber on their belts."

Grace signaled to Eleanor and Maya. "We drop down silently. No shouts. No warnings."

Before the guards below could even sense the shift in the air currents, Grace dropped through the iron ceiling grate like a silent phantom. She landed squarely on the shoulders of the first commander, driving the blunt pommel of her dagger into his temple. He collapsed without a sound.

Simultaneously, Maya and Eleanor dropped behind the second guard. Maya wrapped a thick leather strap around his throat, cutting off his airway, while Eleanor caught his heavy iron axe before it could crash against the stone floor.

In less than five seconds, both guards were neutralized and bound with heavy rope.

Grace quickly snatched the heavy brass keys from the commander’s belt. "Maya, Eleanor, take the remaining two women and secure the granary trapdoors. Lock it from the inside so Malakor’s men can't set it ablaze if the tide turns."

"What about you, Grace?" Maya asked, holding her spear tightly.

"I’m going to the winch tower to open the front gates," Grace replied, looking up at the spiral stone staircase leading into the upper levels of the fortress. "And I have a debt to settle with House Pike."

"Grace, Lyra is a trained assassin," Eleanor warned anxiously. "She’s been raised by Crimson Pack warlords her entire life!"