Chapter 142: Phase I
Velrosa stood like a dagger unsheathed—leaned over the vast oaken desk in the study, the firelight painting her face in deep lines of gold and shadow.
Around her, the form of loyalty took shape: Eli stood with arms crossed like a statue of war, Elise with her cold, calculating gaze sharpened into steel, Black Rat lounging against the bookcase with his usual rogueish grin, and Ian...Ian who leaned in silence by the fireplace, arms folded, eyes like smoldering coal fixed on her with neither doubt nor devotion.
Only focus.
Outside, the wind howled through the high towers of House Elarin, as if the city itself braced for something terrible to begin.
"I have become a threat," Velrosa said softly, but her voice carried like a bell tolling across a battlefield. "To the Council. To the old blood. To the order that grips Esgard with a dying hand. And I would be a fool to think they will allow me to continue breathing."
She looked at each of them—truly looked.
Measured.
"If you are in this room, you are one of the few I trust completely. That number, as you all well know, is not large. Our enemies multiply with each passing hour. Our allies..."
She paused.
"Are already in this room."
The weight of that truth settled into the silence like dust on a tomb.