Kael’s POV
The council chamber stank of old power and older lies.
I slammed the folder shut. The sound cracked through the air like thunder. It shattered the quiet, slicing through velvet silence and drawing startled flinches from the council. All but one.
Dorian Laveau.
He didn’t move. He sat still, smug and serene, a rotting relic wrapped in silk. His face didn’t flinch, didn’t flicker. Just held that same stretched smile, as if he owned the air we breathed. He thought tying me to his daughter made him king maker? He thought his lies could rewrite destiny?
I had to end this before someone bled.
Not because I was calm, far from it. I wanted the blood. My own was already boiling, thrumming beneath my skin like lightning trapped in a cage. My power surged, raw and restless, begging to
