The calm didn’t last.
Lucien felt it before anything happened—the subtle shift beneath stability, like a fault line moving deep underground. Empires didn’t collapse loudly at first. They cracked in silence.
He was halfway through reviewing a restructuring proposal when his phone vibrated on the desk. Not a call. A message. One line from his head of security.
We have a problem. It’s not Crane. It’s internal.
Lucien didn’t respond immediately. He leaned back in his chair, eyes lifting to the glass wall of his office. Below him, the city moved in obedient patterns, unaware that order was already being questioned above it.
Internal was worse than external. Enemies you could see were predictable. Betrayal never was.
He stood, slipping on his jacket. “Seraphina,” he called.
She appeared f
