Lilian’s POV
“Thorne has been looking for an excuse to challenge your seat for a decade, Alexander. You didn’t just give him a loophole. You handed him a loaded gun and painted a massive target on your own back.”
The deep, gravelly voice echoing from behind the heavy mahogany doors belonged to a man I hadn’t formally been introduced to, but my newly awakened Nightwalker senses instantly recognized the rumbling, chest-deep cadence.
“Thorne is a coward who hides behind Council bureaucracy,” Alexander’s voice fired back, sounding colder and far more predatory than I had ever heard it. “If he wants to challenge my claim, he can face me in the ring. I’ll tear his throat out in front of the entire assembly.”
“If it were just a standard border dispute, I would agree with you,” Elijah’s smooth
