We made our way downstairs.
This time, the halls felt different.
Earlier, the estate had moved with emergency. Now it moved with aftershock. Staff stepped aside quickly but not fearfully. Guards bowed their heads. Several warriors outside the command wing looked at me with the kind of respect that made my shoulders want to straighten even from Darius’ arms.
I did not like being carried into a strategic meeting.
But I liked even less the idea of Brecken using Vivienne as another wedge while I sat upstairs drinking soup like an obedient patient.
The command wing had once been a formal receiving room. Now it was full of screens, maps, phones, tablets, route boards, and people who understood that old houses could still hold modern wars.
Sebastian stood near the main table, one hand brace
