Vortiger Tower – Cassien’s Penthouse, 10:32 A.M.
Cassien slammed the elevator button, his knuckles whitening as the metal doors slid shut. The red digits above counted down with a cruel slowness, mocking him. Sublevel 3. That floor had always been off-limits, locked away for emergencies and classified archives that even he had seldom accessed. Until now.
Selene’s message flashed in his mind the photo of Leona with a priest at Saint Mirabel. A different angle of history. A question mark that turned the past into a labyrinth of deceit.
He clenched the second ring in his pocket, the same one he had kept safe all these years, a reminder of the vow that had survived fire, betrayal, and time.
If she had been targeted before… and someone else had been involved… then the fire wasn’t just an at
