The courier stumbled into the strategy room, pale and sweating, his satchel banging against his side. He dropped to one knee and held out the sealed message like it was burning his fingers.
I broke the wax and scanned the page. My heart sank with every line. Border skirmishes. Vampire strikes hitting the exact hours marked by the whistle Nathan had tracked. These weren’t coincidences. The Hollow Council was feeding them information, trying to force us into open war.
Before I could share the message, Darius’s voice cut through the atrium. “Amelia,” he called smoothly, waving me toward the scaffold built beneath the cracked skylight. His smile was polite, practiced, but his eyes flicked over me like he was measuring. “A brief inspection. The staff are anxious. They’ll rest easier if you se
