Ethan's POV
We reached the agreed meeting point at dusk on the third day — a burned clearing at the edge of what used to be Selene's family territory, chosen, I suspected, because Riven wanted us to see exactly what his war had already cost before we asked him to end it.
Lucas fanned the guard out at a respectful distance. Selene stood close beside me, blade sheathed but hand resting near the hilt, the particular stillness of someone who'd trained her whole life for a moment she'd never quite believed would arrive.
"He'll come," she said quietly. "He wants this as much as we do. He just doesn't trust himself to want it out loud."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I've spent months studying every scrap my mother left about him," she said. "He's spent centuries being told he isn't worth
