Late that night, while Silas works on cracking the Geneva records, the head of court security sends a secret emergency message to Lucian's phone: someone inside the High Chancery has just disabled the security alarms on the underground Royal Chancery Vault.

Lucian’s dark eyes narrowed into sharp, deadly slits as his phone screen glowed bright red in his massive palm. He did not lose his cool for even a single second. Instead, he made a fast, silent call to his private strike team stationed right outside the court building, ordering them to lock down every single exit around the underground vault before anyone could escape with the steel box.

The...