The morning after Grace took her place on the Council, the halls of Château Lumière felt colder. Heavier. Every gaze she passed was a mask. Every smile, a knife hidden in velvet. She hadn’t even signed her first official document before the consequences of her decision started to unfold.
Her phone buzzed. A single message appeared:
"They know what you did. You’re being watched. A Friend."
She didn’t flinch. She expected this. Power came with enemies, and Grace Ashford had just declared war on a legacy that was centuries old.
But what she didn’t expect was the cost it would extract from the one man she couldn’t afford to lose.
The Fallout with Nathaniel
Nathaniel hadn’t called. He hadn’t messaged. Not since he walked out the previous night after whispering, “If you become one of them…
