**Aaron POV**
I stood at the window, my gaze fixed on the spot where Alexander had vanished into the jungle's oppressive green embrace. The silence he left behind was a heavy blanket, smothering the usual sounds of the coven's nocturnal life. My own pain, a familiar, constant companion, felt sharp in his absence. I knew the shape of his grief, the way it hollowed a person out, leaving only a shell that went through the motions. I had vowed to drag him back into the light, but how could I fight a ghost? How could I reason with a man who was centuries deep in his own tomb?
My thoughts drifted back to my sister, to the image of her face that was slowly fading from my memory, replaced by the cold, hard promise of revenge. We were the same, Alexander and I. Two orphans in a world that had che
