LOCATION: VAIRO TERRITORY – OUTER BORDERS

TIME: 2:06 a.m.

The walls were tagged now.

Not with names.

Not with crowns.

With a mark burned into the brick a hairpin drawn in blood.

The city had stopped asking where Solene went.

It started asking who was helping her.

And every time Morrow sent someone to investigate…

They never came back.

LOCATION: MORROW’S COMPOUND – STRATEGY ROOM

TIME: 2:14 a.m.

Morrow paced barefoot across the marble.

Screens flickered. Her face ...