Arianna
Forty-eight hours.
That was all I had before I had to walk into the central house and face the man I had spent years running from.
Not on Gold Pack land.
Not with Braxton controlling the perimeter.
Not with Easton’s warriors surrounding me.
On neutral ground.
In my father’s world.
I sat at the conference table staring at the council summons until the words blurred together. Every time I looked at the seal at the bottom, memories came back in pieces. Long hallways. Stone floors. Men and women dressed too formally for ordinary conversations. Children taught to sit still and listen while adults discussed loyalty as though it were something inherited instead of earned.
I had been twelve the first time my father took me there.
He told everyone I would lead one day.
I remember
