Austin’s POV
The message came at midnight.
No guard announced her presence, not even a single security alarm ringed. One moment the war room was silent, lit only by low-burning lamps and scattered maps. The next, the air shifted, thickened like the space itself had inhaled and forgotten to breathe out.
“You placed a bounty,” a female voice said from the shadows. “On answers.”
I was on my feet instantly, blade in hand. She stepped into the light slowly, deliberately. Cloaked in dark fabric stitched with symbols that pulsed faintly, she looked neither young nor old. Her eyes were sharp, calculating, and far too calm for someone who had bypassed every ward in my territory.
“You’re trespassing,” I said coldly.
“I’m invited,” she replied. “By desperation.”
I didn’t lower my weapon. She s
