Chapter : Beneath the Ashes

The storm hadn’t stopped.

For three days, the sky remained bruised, wind clawing at the windows like something alive. Trees bent in protest, thunder rattled the ground, and yet inside the estate, a different kind of silence had settled—tense and watchful.

Lucien hadn’t slept. Neither had I.

Evangeline.

The name clung to everything now, a ghost slipping between the cracks of every conversation. Mira had disappeared, and in her place, she left a trail that led straight into the jaws of something we weren’t ready for.

“Camilla traced the signal bounce to the outskirts of Marseille,” Lucien said, pacing the length of the room. “An...