**Third Person POV** The guest suite had become a cage of silk and paranoia. Elena paced the length of the Persian rug, her footsteps silent, her heart hammering against her ribs. Every time the floorboards creaked in the hallway, she flinched, expecting the door to burst open, expecting the Grand Luna’s guards to drag her into the woods, or Silas’s men to claim her as part of a debt she never signed for. She was alone. Truly alone. The realization had settled in her gut like lead the moment she realized Maeve hadn't come back. Maeve, the girl she had trusted, the girl she had thought was a fellow victim had played her for a fool. Maeve had taken her secrets about the Mark, taken the jewels, and vanished into the night, leaving Elena to face the fallout of moving Aria to that damp, dar

