Chapter 96 Final Strike

• They didn’t wait for the sun to rise.
• Amara descended into the lower levels of the estate with her heels silent against stone, her movements sharpened by purpose. The air down here tasted of steel and salt—cold, heavy with the ghosts of everyone who had ever crossed her.
• Lucien was already waiting outside the reinforced room, his eyes on the screen that showed Liora inside. Her face was swollen, her mouth bloodied, but she still sat tall in the chair. As if pride could protect her now.