Aveline
The storm outside hadn’t even started, but I could feel it in the air.
Tension.
It clung to the walls of the Black Fang estate like sweat after a battle, thick and suffocating. Every servant gave me a wide berth, eyes darting to corners, whispers trailing behind me like shadows. I didn’t need their pity. I didn’t need anything.
Except space.
Except answers.
But I wasn’t going to get any of those, not when Matteo was in one of his moods—icy silence mixed with venom-laced orders. After what Serafina had done—framing me and locking me away—he hadn’t apologized. He hadn’t explained. He just watched.
Punished.
And now, I stood outside his war room, pacing like a caged wolf. Mila had warned me to let it go, to wait, to let his temper cool.
But I wasn’t built for silence.
I thre
