NOLA
The grand foyer of the manor felt like it had been sucked dry of oxygen, the air growing heavy and stagnant as the three members of the Council stepped through the heavy oak doors, their presence casting long, distorted shadows across the white marble floor. They didn’t look like the monsters from the stories, they looked like the kind of people who ran hedge funds or sat on the boards of old universities, yet the smell of them gave the game away. They smelled of ancient earth, of rot, and of a power so old it had started to decay. Rhett stood beside me, his hand resting on the small of my back, his body a solid wall of heat that acted as my only anchor in a room that suddenly felt very dangerous. Silas was off to the side, his hands folded neatly in front of his sharp suit, his expr
