Malrik POV

A week had passed since the notice: Roarke was to be arrested and brought before the Council. The summons had said three days three days and then nothing. No hearing. No cancellation. No update. Just a silence that tasted deliberate.

Roarke had gone dark too. No answers to my messages, nothing on secure lines. At first I told myself he was laying low until the hearing. Now the excuse felt thin. Something had been calculated. Someone had moved and wanted no witnesses.

We’d ...