For a long, agonizing minute, the only sound in the cavernous Grand Hall was the crackle of the massive stone fireplaces.
Lord Silas’s hands gripped the edges of the oak table so hard the ancient wood began to splinter. His crimson eyes bored into Elara, searching for a tremor in her hands, a spike in her heartbeat, or the scent of a lie.
He found nothing. Only the cold, calculated certainty of a woman holding the detonator.
"You bluff," Silas hissed, though the absolute authority in his voice was beginning to fracture. "A human would not dare burn the world down around her."
Elara didn't flinch. She simply pulled her phone from the hidden pocket of her velvet gown, unlocked the screen, and held her thumb over a red application icon.
"Try me," she whispered.
"Enough, Silas."
T
