ARIA’S POV
We’re eating dinner when one of Sebastian’s men enters without knocking, murmuring something low into his ear. Sebastian doesn’t lower his voice when he replies.
“Tell them to rotate the outer guards,” he says calmly. “Dante’s people are circling closer than they realize.”
My fork freezes midair.
Sebastian notices. He smiles.
“That wasn’t for you,” he says lightly.
But it was.
And he knows it.
Later that night, he leaves his office door partially open. Papers are spread across the desk — maps, coordinates, names circled in red. He wants me to see how inevitable this is. How trapped I am.
That’s his mistake.
Men like Sebastian believe fear makes people obedient. They forget it also makes people observant.
I memorize everything.
The way the light hits the map through t
