Chapter 66
The morning broke to whispers–thick, low murmurs curling through the halls of the council chamber. Adam’s name hovered like smoke in the air, never spoken too loud, never spoken too soft.
Officially, it was a “health–related withdrawal.” Unofficially, everyone knew better. The word ‘resigned‘ wasn’t used, but it echoed anyway, traveling room to room like a ghost in a hall of mirrors.
I walked the length of the east corridor, documents clutched in one hand, silence in the other. The door to Richard’s office was still closed. I slid the talking points I drafted–clean, neutral, firm–under the frame and moved on before anyone could ask questions. Let them wonder who wrote the words. Let them guess.
Richard and Nathan were locked behind another set of doors, no doubt trying to distance the administration from the fallout. Adam had always been a convenient piece. Now he was a liability, and the game had changed. The council wanted stability, not scandal. And in a summit already strained by tension, even whispers had weight.
Across the compound, Emma confirmed what I already suspected: the metadata trail we uncovered traced straight to an offsite cluster, buried in the infrastructure of one of David’s dummy shell companies. It wasn’t even subtle. Bold. Arrogant. Like he never imagined someone like me would be the one to find it. That was the mistake, wasn’t it? Thinking I was invisible.
“Beta’s preparing a full statement,” Emma told me. “Council gets the report at midday.”
“Good,” I said, sliding my coat back on. “Let’s make sure the projector works.”
The air felt thick with consequence. Every hallway I passed through hummed with it. I moved like a blade slicing water, measured, deliberate. People looked up when I walked by. Some nodded. Some didn’t.
I wandered through the main forum wing on instinct more than purpose. The sunlight pooled through the high windows like amber wine, casting long shadows along the corridor floor. An informal discussion had broken out–regional logistics, mid–tier alliances, the usual fodder between sessions. But the tone felt different. Less casual. More charged.
I kept my pace slow, casual. And still, they found me.
“Amelia?”
I turned. A middle–aged Alpha with sharp eyes and a sharper jaw stepped toward me. Two others followed. All of them looked like they had opinions. I braced myself for it.
“What are your thoughts on decentralizing communication access between minor packs?” one asked.
I gave them my answer–measured, intentional. Then another stepped in, pushing the conversation into succession laws. I could see the trap they were laying. I stepped around it. My stance held, but so did their scrutiny. The tension in the room shifted the moment I refused to defer to any of them.
Finally, a silver–haired elder with a smirk said, “You speak well. But at the end of the day, you’re still just another pawn on the
board.”
I looked him dead in the eye.
“Then it’s time someone flipped the board.”
The room fell silent. His lips parted, but no words came. The others looked at one another, unsure if they’d just witnessed a misstep or a declaration of war. One of them looked almost amused. I didn’t wait for either. I left them in the echo of my words.
The butler–Samuel, I’d learned–was polishing a brass railing near the service entrance when I found him. He looked up with a soft smile, already knowing why I’d come.
“You had a question,” he said.
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Chapter 66
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I nodded. “The woman in the photo.”
He set the cloth aside gently. “Elena Clearwater.”
My breath caught. The name. It had always felt like she lived in the negative space between facts. A ghost with no label. But here it was, spoken aloud like something sacred.
“She was a medic,” Samuel said. “Brave. Brilliant. She didn’t just treat wounds. She changed people.”
“How?” I asked, the word fragile in my throat.
“She made them believe healing was possible. Even when the war made monsters out of men.”
I swallowed. “Did you know her well?”
“Well enough to remember how she carried herself,” he said. “With purpose. With conviction. Like she wasn’t afraid of the blood because she believed in the people underneath it.”
