Modric’s POV
Velvera’s cottage looked abandoned before I entered it.
The front door stood partly open, moving slightly whenever the wind passed through the trees. No lamps burned inside. Her vehicle remained near the gate, but the cottage held none of the warmth or perfume that usually greeted me.
Kylian reached the porch first.
“You should not be here.”
I ignored him.
The weakening poison still moved through my blood. My shoulder burned beneath the bandage, and every step pulled at the wound, but I refused to remain in the infirmary while guards searched the home of the woman I had trusted for years.
Elara had argued.
Viktor had ordered me to rest.
Mary Ann did not know I had left.
None of that mattered.
Velvera was gone.
I needed to see what she had left behind.
Two guards s
