The next morning, the estate was a flurry of hushed anxiety. Darius had returned late in the night, only to find his precious ward nursing a second-degree burn wrapped in sterile gauze.

"I still don't understand how you could be so careless, Nora," Darius said, his voice a low, vibrating growl of

The drive back to the Obsidian Ridge estate was a masterclass in psychological compartmentalization. Nora Sterling gripped the leather steering wheel of her SUV, inhaling the scent of the pine forest that bordered her territory, and allowed herself one final, genuine smile. The image of Darius stand

For a single, suspended heartbeat, the dining room was paralyzed in a tableau of horror.

Ivy thrashed on the Aubusson rug, her heels drumming a frantic, chaotic rhythm against the floorboards. The white foam spilling from her lips was now tinged with pink, and a pungent, unnatural scent flooded th