Chapter 24 The Enemy Within

• The palace stood silent beneath a silver moon, but within the war chamber, tension pulsed like a second heartbeat.
• Alric lay resting under Mirabelle’s watch. The scroll bearing the names of suspected palace traitors had been passed from hand to trembling hand. It now sat before Kelvin, heavy as a death sentence.
• Lucia stood beside him, her presence no longer that of an outsider or a frightened girl who had once woken up confused in a palace room.