Lucien stood motionless among the ancient oak trees, their twisted branches reaching toward a sky heavy with storm clouds. The summons from the Council still pissed him off. Jacob's discovery of Scarlett had forced his hand – another debt he'd need to settle with Ezra's spy when the time was right.
These weren't ordinary trees – they stood in a perfect circle, their trunks marked with weathered symbols that most human eyes would dismiss as natural scarring. To those who knew what to look for, however, these marks told a different story. They were one of many portals to the vampire settlement, though this particular one was the only one Lucien had ever trusted. He'd used it centuries ago when he first chose exile, and now it would serve as his path back to a world he'd deliberately left be
