Victor’s voice trembled, his hands shaking visibly. “So you’re saying… we’re all targets now?”“Not yet.” Ethan’s tone cut like steel. “But we will be, the moment the thief uses the key.”Lady Miriam tilted her head slightly, her voice smooth as poison. “And what if the thief is not outside these walls? What if the thief is family? Would you still speak of ‘we’?”Her words spread a ripple through the chamber. Heirs exchanged uneasy glances. Ethan caught it every twitch, every nervous swallow and he pressed forward.“Yes,” he said, slowly. “Because if it is family, then the threat isn’t at our gates. It’s sitting at this very table.”The silence that followed was suffocating. Hours later, the council broke apart, but not in resolution. Guards doubled at every door. Lights blazed through every corridor of the Hale estate.The old fortress groaned under the weight of paranoia. Ethan retreated to the war room a long chamber lined with digital maps, screens, and archives of family records.

The estate shook again, plaster raining down from the vaulted ceiling of the war room. Alarms blared, their shrill wails drowning out the panicked shouts of guards scrambling outside.Victor clung to the table, his eyes wild. “They’re here, they’re inside the perimeter!” Ethan stood motionless, his hand braced on the console, his jaw locked like iron. “Not inside. Not yet.”Garrick stormed forward, spittle flying as he roared. “This is your doing, boy! Your paranoia, your arrogance you’ve dragged war to our very door!”Ethan turned his head slowly, his gaze a knife. “If you think this attack came because of me, Garrick, then you’re blind. It came because a traitor inside this family opened the gates.”Murmurs rippled through the chamber. Suspicion poisoned every glance. Lady Miriam’s voice sliced the air, calm, deliberate. “He isn’t wrong. Someone let the wolves sniff our walls. The only question is… who?”The tension was a living thing, pressing against every throat. Cousins shifted,

The hall froze in a crucible of fire and shadow. The traitor stepped forward, master key glinting in torchlight. His face once familiar, once trusted was now a mask of cold triumph.Victor staggered back, clutching his chest. “No… no, it can’t… Julian?”Julian Hale Ethan’s cousin, once his sparring partner, once the brother he chose smiled faintly, his eyes stripped of warmth.“Yes, Victor. It’s me.” He held the key aloft, its edges glowing faintly with the encrypted power pulsing within. “And tonight, the empire sheds its old skin.”Ethan’s voice was iron. “You.”Julian’s gaze flicked to him, mocking. “Me. The shadow you overlooked. The one you thought too weak, too quiet. But weakness has teeth, cousin.”Victor stammered, “But why? Why would you”“Why?” Julian laughed, sharp as glass. “Because I grew tired of being nothing. Tired of watching you always you crowned before the crown even touched your head. Tired of being your shadow while the family bled for scraps.”His smile curved.