I stared at Hadrian, my mind reeling from his words, my eyes locked onto the burning intensity in his gaze—a clear sign he meant every syllable.

"You can't just kill her..." I muttered, my voice laced with unease.

A slow, almost indifferent shrug lifted his shoulders. "Selene has more skeletons in her closet than you'd think. I just need to find them and accuse her of something worthy of execution."

He spoke as if it were inevitable, a mere matter of time.

I forced ...