Loved this chapter. Ugly choice Ethan made there at the end, and of course he berates himself for it -- not that he had any better options. Already at the end of his resources, needing to establish himself as a threat...it was a corner.

I can only bet this will make things hard for him later on, but I could easily have been worse if he let them go. I know I'd make the same decision in his shoes.

Oh, and I don't know if Dreamwidth takes a while to update, but a second copy of the summary-paragraph shows up underneath the title.