Natalie POV
The oil lamp on the heavy mahogany desk flickered violently as a fresh draft of mountain wind rattled the stained-glass panes of the upper solar. It was well past midnight, but the grand grandfather clock ticking in the corner might as well have been silent; time had lost all meaning inside the heavy walls of the royal wing.
Before me lay the three leather-bound Moonlight ledgers, their pages filled with Darren’s cramped, deceptive handwriting.
My fingers were stained with dark ink, my eyes burning from hours of tracking the geometric ciphers he had lifted from the old northern rogue dialects. Beside the ledger, a clean parchment sheet was half-covered in my own handwriting, translating the hidden asset lines line by tedious line.
“He was clever, Natalie,” Selene murmured w
