For a split second, the cavern wasn't a cavern anymore.
It was a training ground. Boots striking cobblestones in perfect unison.
A towering figure in uniform.
Her father. The general.
The memory flickered — distant but sharp.
She forced her expression to remain neutral.
"The masked man gave me the map and gave me ideas what to say," she said. "That's all."
Sandro, seated on a smooth rock while the doctor wrapped his wrist, glanced up at her from beneath lowered lashes.
Just when had Aunt Larissa met this masked man?
Was it during the chaos when she'd been taken earlier?
Or had there been another meeting… one no one else knew about?
Liam, who was standing beside Logan, hadn't missed the shift in her tone and the precision of her language.
Or the way hardened soldiers were listening to her like she outranked them.
Across the clearing, Ares watched her from a distance.
Watched the way she stood over that map.
Commanding. Strategic. Unshaken.
