The jet sliced through the morning sky, cutting a path back toward the safehouse in the Alps. But despite the roar of the engines and the subtle jostle of turbulence, the interior of the aircraft was steeped in a silence so heavy it bordered on suffocating.
Ariella sat at the far end of the cabin, eyes fixed on the mountains in the distance, but her mind trapped in the stone chamber below the Romanian monastery.
"You are not the end of us, Ariella Devereux… you are the beginning."
She could still hear Astrid's voice, calm and cruel.
The gunshot that ended her echoed in her bones. She had pulled the trigger without hesitation—but not without consequence.
Killing Astrid had closed one door. But it had opened another far darker.
Ariella wasn't sure what haunted her more: Astrid's revelation… or the fact that part of her believed it.
She didn't notice Leo approach until he knelt beside her, his fingers brushing hers.
"You haven't said a word since we left the compound."
