The grand ballroom of the Obsidian Syndicate buzzed with a frantic, electric energy. Word of the confrontation had spread through the crowd like wildfire, and everywhere Elara turned, she could feel the weight of a hundred calculating stares.

Kaelen remained firmly at her side, his presence a towe

The heavy, suffocating silence of the corridor stretched between them, thick enough to cut with a blade. Kaelen Thorne stood frozen ten feet away, his storm-grey eyes locked onto Elara. He had seen it. He had felt the terrifying, ancient static of her aura—a power that made the instincts of his own

The ballroom of the Obsidian Syndicate was a powder keg, the air thick with the metallic scent of adrenaline and impending violence. Kaelen Thorne stood like a monolith before the firing squad of Grand Council enforcers, his muscles coiled, ready to rip the throat out of Armand Blanc the second the