The silence inside the underground bunker was suffocating.
For the past two days, Leon and Serena had remained hidden—far beneath the ruins of an old monastery off the coast of Malta, completely off-grid.
It was the last safehouse built by Leon's mentor, the original Kingmaker.
Everything above them had burned. His empire was now in enemy hands, his name broadcasted globally as presumed dead.
But it was the silence among his own allies that unnerved him most.
“You should eat,” Serena said softly, setting down a tray.
Leon didn’t look at the food. His fingers were tapping the encrypted keyboard, trying to decrypt a set of outgoing comms from one of his supposedly “dead” operatives.
“Someone betrayed us,” he muttered. “And I think I know who.”
Serena’s eyes narrowed. “You suspect a n
