Chapter 165
Annalise
The silence of the library was the kind that pressed against your skin—heavy, watchful, almost breathing. I walked slowly between the tall shelves, letting my fingers graze the cracked spines of ancient books, their leathery covers whispering secrets I didn’t have time to decipher. Dust floated through slivers of cold, silver light bleeding through stained-glass windows, casting fractured shadows across the marble floor. I wasn’t here for knowledge. I was here to remember. To think. To plan.
Lucien’s sudden appearance had changed everything.
My plan—once desperate, half-formed, fragmented by emotion and uncertainty—had now sharpened into something clear. Simple. Ruthless.
With him here, I could get them out.
Because if I didn’t… if they stayed any longer in Demon
