Moments later,

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The silence that followed the final collapse of Chloe’s world hung thin and brittle over the great hall.

No one moved to help Julian up. No one spoke to Chloe, who stood pale and trembling, staring at nothing.

The Zodiac held their positions at the exits, their eyes scanning every shadow, every face, every line of runes carved into the stone. Aria stood with Malphas, her hand still resting in his, her mind turning over the trap they had uncovered, the siphon runes, the men in demon-steel. She had sent Lycian, Fenris, and Drako to the safest vaults beneath Blackwood Villa before they had even left the...