The cage door, which she had believed was finally swinging open, had slammed shut with a definitive, chilling clang. Linsy stared at Michael, her mind reeling. She didn't understand his endgame. But she knew, with a certainty that settled like ice in her veins, that she would not sit idly by and await her fate. The canary, the pampered pet in a gilded prison—that was not her destiny. She would not accept it.

Michael watched the play of emotions across her face—the fear, the defiance, the ...