[Ava's POV]
The quiet pushed in like a secondary skin, heavier than stone, thicker than air.
The three figures of the Council positioned themselves in the Maddoxes' living room as if it were their throne room. The woman in the emerald silk smoothed her gloves with delicate precision, her smile never wavering, and the skeletal man opened the silver case with slow, deliberate care. The figure in the cloak stood silently, cane planted against the floor, faceless, yet somehow the most oppressive of all.
I was in the middle of the room, every nerve afire, every gasp jagged.
Rhett had stepped to my side, close enough that our shoulders brushed, though his posture screamed restrained fury. Lucian leaned lazily against the bar counter, but his eyes—sharper than knives—never left the cloaked fi
