For a heartbeat, no one moved.The forest held its breath with us - trees rigid, shadows taut, the air buzzing with the kind of tension that usually came right before blood hit the ground.Aldric Blackridge stood there like he owned the silence. Like he expected us to bend to it.I didn’t.I stepped fully forward, shoulders back, ignoring the way my vision swam just a little at the edges. Poison or not, I refused to let him think I was fragile. My brothers shifted instinctively, a half-step closer, a wall of muscle and threat at my back.Protective. Furious.Good.“Let’s skip the part where you pretend this is a polite meeting.” I said coolly. “You didn’t come here for diplomacy. You came to rattle us.”Aldric’s eyes flicked briefly to Rowan, then Damon, then Kieran and Silas - cataloguing, assessing, weighing odds. A general counting weapons.“And yet,” he said mildly, “here we all are. Talking.”“For now.” Damon growled.Aldric smiled at him. Not intimidated. Not impressed.“That te
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