Chapter 40

• Alaric’s POV
• My meeting today was set to be the kind that would shake the ground beneath any man’s feet—just not mine. I’d built my life around avoiding these traps, these landmines of misplaced trust. Yet here I was, facing the reality that one of my own allies had potentially turned on us. I’d spent the past few hours steeling myself, sharpening the edge that would get me through this conversation.
• A few minutes later, Allesio joined me, a grim look in his eyes that mirrored my own.