*Chapter 30:
ALESSIA
I didn’t sleep. Not after I walked out of the war room and left that black envelope lying on the stone table like a loaded weapon no one had dared to touch yet. Not after I spoke Blackwell’s name out loud and watched the way the truth settled over Azriel, Asher, and Axel like a shadow they’d lived under for twenty years without ever realizing it was there.
The silence that followed wasn’t peaceful, or calm, it was the kind of silence that settles after an explosion, when the dust is still hanging heavy in the air and you’re waiting to see what has been destroyed and what is still standing. My body was exhausted, my side still throbbed from the silver burn, but my mind wouldn’t shut off. It kept replaying Blackwell’s expression, the way his smile fell the moment I t
