Night threw its dark shadows over the east windows, staining the walls of the mansion with bruises of dying light.

The halls were too quiet.

Again.

Leya had grown accustomed to hearing differently now—not to the noises, but to silences.

And there was a new one following behind every door she walked through.

A silence with teeth.

She remembered it most clearly when she was summoned—not by Harrison, not by Eleanor—but by Vivian herself.

Diplomatic knock on ...