Mag-log inCAMILLE'S POV:The car pulls through the gates of Ashcroft Manor, and I feel my breath catch in my throat.The house is beautiful. More beautiful than I remember. The damage from the attack has been repaired. The gates are new. The walls are whole in fact the house is standing as brand new.But I know what happened here. I saw it on the news. The explosions. The gunfire. The violence and destruction. I saw the family that took me in, that protected me, that saved my daughter, fighting for their lives against the monster who was hunting me. I rested my palm against the smooth leather of the car door, watching the long driveway slowly unfurl before us.I saw Nikolai on the television. His face was cold and empty. His eyes were hollow. He looked like a ghost, like a man who had already died and just forgot to stop moving.He is back in prison now. Life sentence. Hard labour. He will never get out. He will never hurt anyone again.I watched the sentencing from the penthouse where L
ALISTAIR'S POV:The fight is brutal.Nikolai is bigger than me. Heavier. More experienced. He has spent two decades in prison, building rage, building hatred. He is a predator. Every blow he lands is heavy, bone-shaking, brutal.But I am smarter.I have been trained since I was a child. I have a black belt in martial arts. I have studied every fighting style, every technique, every strategy. I know how to use my opponent's strength against him. I know how to find weaknesses. I know how to win. My boots slide slightly on the damp floor, but I quickly adjust my footing.I reach into my pocket and I pull out one of my inventions. A small device, no bigger than a coin. I press the button.The device emits a high-pitched frequency. It is designed to disorient, to confuse. Nikolai staggers. His hands fly to his ears. He screams."What is that?" he shouts.I do not answer. I swing. My fist connects with his jaw. He stumbles backward. I swing again, again and again.He falls down. H
ALISTAIR'S POV:The safe house is hidden in the mountains, a concrete bunker buried in the trees like a wound in the earth.I stand at the edge of the clearing, my eyes fixed on the structure ahead. The building is small and square, its walls colourless and featureless, its windows dark. There are no guards outside, no signs of life, no movement at all. It looks abandoned and looks so dead.But I know he is in there. I can feel him, the cold hatred radiating from the walls like a sickness.The journey here was long and silent. My father drove, his good hand steady on the wheel, his eyes fixed on the road. Neither of us spoke. There was nothing left to say. We both knew what was waiting for us. The tires crunched quietly on the dirt road as we turned off the main highway, but the silence inside the car remained heavy.Now we are here.My father is beside me. His face is pale, his arm still wrapped in bandages."Alistair," he says. "I am going in with you."I shake my head. "No
ALISTAIR'S POV:"Dad," I say. "You are hurt. You need to rest.""I am not going to rest while that man is out there," he says. "I am not going to let him hurt my family. Not again."I open my mouth to argue. But I stop. I look at him. I see the determination in his eyes. I see the same fire that burns in me."Together," I say.He nodded his head."Together."*LYSANDER'S POV:*We work side by side.Hours pass. The sun rises and sets. The world moves on outside the walls of the study. But we do not move from there neither do we stop nor do not rest. The shadows lengthen across the floor, stretching toward the doorway as the hours slip away.Alistair's system is running. The data is flowing. The leads are coming in. We track every digital footprint, every transaction, every communication and we are getting closer. I can feel it."He is in Eastern Europe," Alistair says suddenly. "A safe house, remote, isolated which is defensible."I look at the screen. The coordinates are
LYSANDER'S POV:The morning after the attack, I stand in the ruins of my home and I feel nothing.The house is still standing, but barely. The windows are shattered, the glass scattered across the floors like diamonds. The walls are scarred with bullet holes, the plaster cracked and crumbling. The furniture is overturned, the paintings torn, the carpets stained with blood. The security system is destroyed, its wires hanging from the walls like dead vines. The gates are bent and broken, the metal twisted into grotesque shapes. The garden is trampled, the roses crushed under the boots of the men who came to destroy us, their petals scattered across the ground like fallen soldiers.I walk through the wreckage, my footsteps echoing on the marble floor. The smoke has cleared, but the smell of it still lingers, sharp and acrid in my nostrils. My arm is wrapped in bandages, the wound from the fight still throbbing, a dull ache that pulses with every heartbeat. My face is pale. My eyes ar
ELARA'S POV:We fight our way through the house together.Alistair is beside me, his hand wrapped around mine, his eyes scanning the darkness. He is not a fighter even though he has black belt he earned whilst growing up but tonight, he is a warrior and he is fighting for our family.I am fighting too. I am fighting with everything I have. I am fighting for Hope. I am fighting for Alistair. I am fighting for the family that I almost destroyed. We step carefully over fallen debris, our breath coming in harsh, ragged gasps as we push past the burning velvet drapes in the corridor.We find Lysander in the great hall. He is wounded, his arm bleeding, his face pale but he is still standing and he has a gun in his hand, his finger on the trigger."Dad!" Alistair shouts.Lysander looks up. His gray eyes are wild. There is blood on his face, a cut on his forehead. His shirt is torn. But his voice is steady."Get your mother," he says. "Get everyone to safety. I will hold them off.""
KIER'S POV:I pour myself a drink and I sit in the dark and I wait for her to come back.She always comes back.But she does not come back.A week passes. Then another. The penthouse stays empty. My calls go straight to voicemail. My texts go unanswered. I send messages through her email, through s
She watched from the window as her father walked out to greet him.August Valancourt shook Lysander's hand with both of his, the way he did with people he truly respected, and he said something that made Lysander nod solemnly. Then her mother appeared, and Isabelle kissed Lysander on both cheeks, t
Celestine started cooking at three in the afternoon, flour on her hands, music playing low from her phone and the smell of tomatoes and garlic filling the whole penthouse.She made the sauce from scratch, the way her grandmother taught her when she was maybe ten years old. She rolled out the pasta
The first time Kier met Sable Morwenna was at a charity gala about six months after his father died.He was standing by the bar, looking miserable, drinking too much and wishing he could leave. And then this woman just appeared next to him, like she had materialized out of thin air."You look like







