Chapter– The Devil’s Invitation

I don’t remember breathing.

Not after I saw him.

Rowan stood beneath the moonlight, framed by silver shadows and firelit eyes. The Order behind him didn’t speak. They didn’t have to. Their presence thundered across the garden in chilling silence, an army cloaked in purpose, each face hidden beneath hoods, their hands bound in ritual red string.

The mark on the stone—burnt into the earth—glowed faintly at my feet. The fox's head inside the circle. A symbol of something deeper than legacy.

A new Order.

A new god.

“Adeline,” Rowan called, his voice deceptively calm. “You came alone. I expected Lucien.”

I swallowed hard and stepped...