Lane realized she had just nearly given the whole thing away, but offering what she could. She took a breath and tried to think as Pace took Fiora to task about her dealings. Pace had gotten Fiora to give ground and she realized she could do some of that as well, though she was not sure if it was a good idea to attempt...In fact, she was certain it was a bad idea, especially since Fiora had James icily shackled next to her.<br/><br/>"Your word is your bond, correct, and your delegate there, he spoke for you. He said if I got the book back, you would release the girl, so you cannot back out of that portion now. I'm sure you could find some way to wiggle out of giving her to us, but you want something, so we're going to make sure that doesn't happen." Lane knew that turning the girl over could mean a variety of things, including just giving Mia straight up to the demon that James had promised her too.<br/><br/>"I seem to be the thing you want, right? I mean, you want to fuck James...Gideon over, but I seem to be the tempting piece on the board." Lane wondered if there was a way to keep the harm that would come to James from happening, while still protecting his daughter. "So you've already made that deal. Mia goes with Pace, but I have a couple caveats. I'll go with you, I'll be in your realm for a night, knowing the cost it might make for me, but you release James from whatever hold you've got on him...And Mia becomes the official ward of Pace and Nora. Both of them." Pace was fine enough, but Lane's eyes shifted to Nora as she said it, communicating with a look something she could not say aloud. If she could not be Mia's guardian, then Nora would have to be. Nora could take her place and do the spells required to break a parental bond.<br/><br/>And James could see his daughter again, even if that bond was broken...<br/><br/>It felt like a small sacrifice, even if she lost time, for this to happen.<br/><br/>"Nora can even take the book and she has no affinity for Gideon, so she and Pace can make sure he doesn't have access to it while I'm away."<br/><br/>There was a tightness in her chest. She knew James would object to this deal, but Fiora had seen to it that he could not object. "So that's the deal. Me for a night, my consent to whatever is asked of me is still my own, Nora and Pace take the girl and James...is left out of things. Left to live out the life he's made for himself, which if you know him, that's surely punishment enough for how he's wronged you." Lane shrugged her shoulders and did her best to keep her eyes forward, knowing that if she looked over to James, she might break character.<br/><br/>"And for all you know, you've taken me out of his life for whatever might remain of it. That's a sting you couldn't build well enough, because he loves me and you'd be taking away something he loves." She drew upon that power inside her again, to steady herself, because it was not just him that loved her...Lane loved him as well, or else she would not have been willing to make this sacrifice. Adella would have told him to go fuck himself and moved on, but Lane...she couldn't.