The Thames was a vein of liquid mercury snaking through a city of fog and ancient arrogance. London didn't scream its power like New York; it whispered it behind limestone pillars and the heavy velvet curtains of Mayfair.
Lila stood before the floor-to-ceiling mirror in their safehouse, a converted clocktower overlooking the Parliament. She didn't recognize the woman staring back. She wore a gown of midnight-blue silk that clung to her curves like a second skin, the fabric woven with microscopic fiber-optics that caught the light only when she moved. Around her neck, the silver locket remained, but it was now flanked by a choker of black diamonds, a gift from the "Shadow Ledger" Ethan had unlocked in Rome.
"You look like a queen prepared for a coup," Ethan’s voice drifted from the doorw
