“Are you sure about this?” Dorian asked, his tone low and tight. “Riven doesn’t meet without a reason. If he asked for you specifically, it’s not to talk—it’s to manipulate.”
Elara looked out the window, her breath fogging the glass. “I’m not doing this for him. I’m doing it for Caelen. I need to know what he’s planning before he hurts our son again.”
Dorian’s jaw flexed as he drove faster. “You don’t owe him anything, Elara.”
“I owe Caelen the truth,” she said quietly. “Even if it comes from the mouth of a snake.”
The car sped down the winding road that led to one of the Kaelith family’s abandoned properties, a secluded manor surrounded by tall, whispering trees. It had once belonged to Dorian’s grandfather, but now it stood in ruins, half-forgotten and cloaked in shadow.
When they a
