The storm had died sometime before dawn, leaving the air sharp and strangely clean…as if the night had tried to wash away the sins committed under its cover. But nothing felt clean inside the manor.Not after what Clara had confessed.Not after what Ethan had seen in her eyes.He stood in the dim hallway now, one hand pressed to the cold wall as he tried to steady himself. Her words replayed in loops that scraped at his composure:“I thought I was protecting him… I didn’t know it would lead to this.”Guilt,Fear, Something else that made his chest tighten.Behind him, footsteps approached….light, careful. Clara.“Ethan,” she said softly, her voice still raw from the night before.He didn’t turn immediately. He could feel her presence like a trembling shadow, hovering just close enough to touch, but waiting…terrified of pushing him away.“You didn’t sleep,” she whispered.“Couldn’t,” he replied.A beat of silence stretched between them. It wasn’t hostile,It wasn’t cold,It was heavythick

Ethan stared at Clara, the courtyard suddenly too quiet, too still. Her words hung in the air like a blade suspended above all three of them.He stepped forward slowly. “Clara… what are you saying?”Clara’s eyes glistened, but she didn’t look away. “I’m saying you’re asking the wrong question.”Victor tried to push himself up, pain shooting through his body. “Ethan….don’t listen to her. She’s protecting him.”Clara flinched.Ethan turned toward her sharply. “Protecting who?”Clara opened her mouth, closed it, then whispered, “My father isn’t the one you should be focused on.”Victor’s voice cracked as he shouted, “Clara, stop lying!”Ethan’s gaze snapped between them. “Enough.” His voice echoed through the courtyard. “Someone start talking.”Clara’s breathing quickened. “If you go after him now, you’ll walk straight into a trap,that’s what he wants.”Victor slammed a fist against the stone beside him. “Of course it’s a trap! That doesn’t change who set it!”Clara’s eyes flickered with

The lights in the strategy room flickered softly, casting long shadows across the polished table where Ethan, Victor, and Clara now sat. A storm brewed outside Braxton Tower, the night clouds rolling like a warning,everything felt tense, charged, as if the building itself sensed a shift coming.Ethan leaned forward, elbows on the table, fingers interlocked. His expression was sharp,focused….but beneath it sat something deeper… disappointment, suspicion, and the first hints of dread.Clara knew this wasn’t going to be easy.Victor paced along the far wall, arms crossed, boots echoing sharply against the tile. He never took his eyes off Clara, Not once.“Let’s focus,” Ethan finally said. “We need to figure out who the traitor is. Clara… you know more than you admitted.”Clara swallowed hard,her hands trembled faintly in her lap, but when she lifted her head, her eyes were steady.“Yes,” she said quietly. “And I’m ready to tell you everything I can.”Victor scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Yo

The Council chamber was never meant to hold silence….certainly not this kind.It pressed against the carved pillars, seeped into the golden seams of the floor, and wrapped itself around the six elders like a living thing trying to strangle them.Leanna walked straight through it.Her boots clicked once, twice…then the doors slammed behind her with a sound that made Elder Mara flinch. Victor stood rigid beside the central dais, jaw tight, while Sebastian leaned in the shadowed corner, arms folded, eyes narrowed in anticipation.Leanna didn’t bow,didn’t greet them,didn’t pretend to care for their titles.She stared each of them down as if weighing their souls.Elder Corwin cleared his throat,“You were not summoned.”“No,” she agreed, voice steady. “I came on my own,and you’re going to listen.”A ripple moved through the table. None of them dared challenge her..not after the cracks she’d put in the courtyard stone when she arrived.Victor took a step forward. “Leanna…”“No.” She didn’t l

The Council chamber still hummed with the echo of Leanna’s declaration.The air felt chargedlike lightning had struck the room and hadn’t yet decided whether to stop burning.Torches flickered.Glasses trembled on the long obsidian table.Six elders, each centuries old, sat in stunned silence,and in the center of the chamber stood Leanna.Her shoulders were squared, her chin lifted, her eyes burning like a controlled wildfire. There was no shaking in her hands,no hesitation,no remorse.She looked like a queen of war, and they knew she wasn't afraid to wage one if it concerned Ethan.Elder Mara finally broke the silence.Her voice was dry, brittle, and barely steady.“You invoked an Ancient Right without summons… and against a sitting Council member.”Leanna didn’t blink.“Korrin endangered Ethan. And then he tried to kill him.”A ripple of uneasy whispering passed through the elders.Another elder stepped faring eyes glaring, fingers tapping slowly against the polished stone.“That is