Aria’s POV
I felt Damon before I saw him—a flicker through the bond, sharp and insistent, like a spark of light in the darkness. He was close. Too close. My heart pounded in my chest as the reality settled in. What the hell was he doing here? Did he have a death wish?
But as I looked around the room, it wasn’t Damon’s presence that unsettled me the most. It was Demitri. The ever-smug vampire had gone eerily silent, a shadow of unease flickering in his usually cold, calculating eyes. The tension was suffocating, pressing down on everyone in the room like a weight that refused to budge.
I finally broke the silence, my voice shaking only slightly. “So... how do we find him? The hunter, I mean.”
The woman who had come with Damon stepped forward, her presence as commanding as it was mysteri
