Mag-log inRowan's POVMira found me the moment the First Witch withdrew to the edge of Blackwood's grounds, granting us space to properly process everything she had revealed, and I watched her expression carry the particular weight of someone working through something considerably larger than she had properly anticipated facing. Her hands were still faintly unsteady when she reached the study door, and I crossed the room immediately, understanding, from the particular careful way she held herself, that she needed a moment before launching into any proper account of what had just occurred."Sit," I said gently, guiding her toward the chair near the fire rather than her usual seat across the desk. "Warm up first. Talk after."She didn't argue, which told me considerably more about how the conversation had genuinely affected her than any account she might have offered immediately. I poured tea neither of us particularly wanted, simply for the warmth of the cup itself, and waited until some color h
Elowen POVI saw his headlights sweep across the driveway before Reyes even finished explaining what little he knew, and I was already running before the car had fully stopped, my heart hammering somewhere between relief and fury.Caspian barely had the door open before I reached him, my hands gripping the front of his jacket, checking him over like I might find some injury hiding beneath the fabric."I'm fine," he said quickly, catching my wrists gently. "Elowen, I'm fine. My phone died. That's all that happened.""That's all that happened?" My voice cracked, equal parts relief and anger fighting for control. "Do you have any idea what the last hour felt like? Reyes calling to say you'd gone dark, no location, no answer, and Desmond nowhere to be found either?""I know. I'm sorry. I should have anticipated the wire failing and brought a backup." He pulled me into him then, arms wrapping around me with a kind of desperate steadiness that undid whatever anger I'd been holding onto. "I'
Caspian POVI arrived at the old marina exactly on time, the same rusted boathouse Desmond used to take me fishing at as a boy, back before I understood what kind of man he actually was underneath the easy laughter and patient lessons about baiting a hook.He was already there, standing at the end of the dock in a coat too heavy for the weather, hands folded behind his back like he was posing for a portrait rather than meeting the nephew he'd spent weeks quietly trying to destroy."You came alone," he said, without turning around. "I wasn't entirely sure you would.""You said come alone. I assumed there were consequences if I didn't.""Smart boy." He finally turned, and the easy warmth I remembered from childhood fishing trips was nowhere in his expression now, replaced by something colder, more calculating. "Though I suspect you have your security stationed somewhere nearby regardless. You were never quite as trusting as your father.""My father trusted you completely. Look where tha
Elowen POV"Absolutely not."I said it before I'd even fully processed the words on his screen, my voice sharper than I intended, but the idea of Caspian walking into some private meeting with a man capable of stealing forty three million dollars and possibly worse made every protective instinct in me flare at once."Elowen, I have to go. If I ignore this, he'll find another way to force my hand, and I'd rather control when and where that happens.""He said come alone. Do you have any idea how many ways that sentence could end badly for you?""I know exactly how it could end. That's why I'm not going without protection stationed nearby, even if he doesn't see them." Caspian was already standing, already moving toward the study door with the restless energy of a man who'd made up his mind before the conversation even started. "But I need to hear what he wants directly. If there's a chance he's willing to negotiate, to walk away quietly instead of dragging this into a public fight that
Caspian POVDawn broke over the estate while Reyes and I stood in the security office reviewing footage that told us nothing except how carefully whoever we were hunting had covered their tracks."Nobody clocked in or out who shouldn't have," Reyes said, rubbing a hand over his tired eyes. "Every guard on that convoy has worked for me for years. I'd stake my reputation on every one of them.""Someone told them where we were going, Reyes. That's not a coincidence I'm willing to explain away.""I know. I'm not defending anyone blindly. I'm telling you what the logs show." He pulled up another screen, cross referencing timestamps against phone records his team had voluntarily submitted for review. "There's one thing that doesn't add up, though. A call was placed from inside the convoy vehicle, twelve minutes before we reached the gate. Encrypted, routed through a relay I can't trace without a warrant.""Who was in that vehicle?"Reyes hesitated, and I already knew before he said it that
Elowen POVCaspian reached the door before I did, throwing it open with a force that made the hinges groan.There was nothing there. No person, no obvious threat, just the quiet dark of my front porch and the distant hum of the city beyond the security lights Reyes's team had installed two days earlier. For one brief, dizzying moment, I let myself hope it had been an empty threat, a bluff meant to terrify without substance behind it.Then Caspian's flashlight swept across the doormat, and his entire body went rigid.A single toy airplane sat propped against the door frame. Noah's favorite, the same blue and silver model he carried everywhere, the one I'd tucked into his backpack that very morning for his after school program.Except Noah was upstairs, asleep, and his backpack was hanging exactly where I'd left it, by the coat closet.My knees nearly gave out. "That's not possible. I checked his bag this morning. It was in there.""Someone's been inside our house," Caspian said, voice







