Chapter 20 The Crew's First (And Last) Mistake

• Dawn light filtered through the trees as Anca's construction team lumbered into the clearing—twenty grizzled men with sun-leathered skin and arms thick enough to snap oak branches. Their eyes raked over the trio with undisguised skepticism, lingering too long on Lux's slender frame and Viola's delicate hands.
• The captain—a barrel-chested man with a scar on his lip, let out a gravelly chuckle. "Boss," he said, jerking a thumb at the group, "you telling me these kids are our new paymasters?"
• Viola didn't blink. She extended the blueprint with the steady hand of a surgeon presenting a scalpel. "Here is the mansion design. I drafted it myself."