The armored SUV tore through the winding cliffside roads, the heavy tires eating up the asphalt as Marcus drove them back to the fortress. The silence in the back seat was thick, heavy with the adrenaline that still coursed through their veins.

Clara sat beside Julian, his arm wrapped around her w

The scent of linseed oil and aged turpentine was a grounding comfort, a sharp, familiar anchor in a world that had, over the last few months, completely reshaped itself.

Clara Vance stood before a massive, arched window in the east wing of the fortress, the late afternoon sun casting long, golden