Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 71 - Chapitre 80

ELIRA POV"He fought Isolde's soldiers at my wedding. He warned me himself about her recruitment efforts weeks before that attack even happened. Kian, if he's the Architect, why would he protect us from his own conspiracy."I paced Marcus's recovery room, working through the tangled logic even as every instinct in my body recognised the cold, calculating sense buried underneath it."Because Isolde had become a liability," Marcus said slowly, propped weakly against his pillows but alert enough to follow the reasoning. "Think about the timeline, Elira. Renar warned you about her recruitment efforts, but only after her methods had already grown reckless enough to risk exposing the entire operation. He didn't protect you out of loyalty. He protected his own investment.""An investment in what," I said, though some cold certainty had already begun forming an answer I didn't want to hear."In you," Kian said quietly, understanding settling grimly across his features. "Elira, think about his

ELIRA POV"No escort at all. That's either supreme confidence, or he already knows exactly how this ends and doesn't need one."I said it quietly, watching through the window as Renar approached the estate alone, dressed simply, none of the calculated elegance I'd come to associate with his previous appearances."Or he wants to talk before anything else happens," Kian said, though his tone carried no illusions about how much trust that possibility deserved.We met him in the same small study where Marcus had first revealed his connection to my mother, Silas positioned discreetly nearby, weapons hidden but ready."I imagine you already know why I'm here," Renar said, without preamble, settling into a chair with a calm that felt less like arrogance and more like resignation."Say it anyway," I said. "I want to hear you admit it directly, for once, instead of watching you manoeuvre around the truth."Renar studied me for a long moment, something almost like relief crossing his features.

ELIRA POV"Every guest is being quietly cross checked against invitation records. Every staff member, every vendor, every delivery that's entered this estate in the last forty eight hours."Silas moved through the celebration hall with practiced calm, projecting nothing but ordinary security diligence to the hundreds of guests already mingling, unaware that the gathering meant to celebrate peace had become a search for a woman presumed dead for sixteen years."Nothing yet," Callum reported through the comm, tension audible despite his efforts to sound composed. "Whoever Eleanor Hart really is, she's either not here, or she's better hidden than anyone we've uncovered so far."I scanned the crowd again, forcing myself to breathe evenly despite the fear coiling tight in my chest, searching every unfamiliar face for something, anything, that might betray a connection to a grandmother I'd never once been told existed as anything other than a distant hunting accident."Elira."Greta's voice

ELIRA POV"Get down. All of you."Eleanor's voice cut across the chaos with unexpected authority, and despite everything I'd just learned about her, despite the fury still burning through my chest, some old instinct made me obey without question, pulling Kian down behind an overturned banquet table as the first shots rang out across the hall."Who are they," Kian demanded, shielding both of us as panic erupted through the fleeing crowd.Eleanor's expression had gone grim, calculating, but something in it now carried genuine alarm rather than her usual detached control. "The Old Guard. Purists who believe the Ironfang line should never have compromised with any outside power, mine included. I built my entire strategy assuming they'd remain scattered, disorganised, incapable of coordinated action after two centuries of hiding." Her jaw tightened. "I was wrong. Someone's finally united them.""You didn't know they were coming," I said, disbelief cutting through my fury."No," Eleanor adm

ELIRA POV"Stand down. Royal forces, stand down and let them through."Marcus's voice rang out clearly across the chaos, weak but unmistakably commanding despite the injuries still visibly slowing his movements, and I felt a fresh wave of disbelief crash through me as I finally understood exactly whose banners were sweeping across the estate grounds."You called for reinforcements," I said, breathless, power still crackling faintly beneath my skin as the tide of battle shifted dramatically in our favour."Three days ago," Marcus confirmed, leaning heavily on Silas for support as he made his way toward the hall's centre. "After the wedding attack, I understood we might need considerably more force than Ashgrove and Edric's combined resources could provide. I simply hoped we'd never actually need to use them."Vesper's forces, faced suddenly with an overwhelming and disciplined royal contingent, began falling back in controlled, disciplined retreat rather than outright collapse, a clear