The lights on the second floor of the Zuvel mansion were still burning long past midnight, slicing through the darkness like a northstar.
Inside his room, Ares sat hunched over his sleek black laptop, the screen casting a cold glow over his sharp features. His fingers moved fast, precise, relentless. He wasn't browsing.
He was digging.
Larissa Reyes.
He started with the obvious—school archives, public records, competition rosters. The legal channels. Clean. Safe.
At first, he looked at legal channels, archives of the school she had been.
"Interesting…" he murmured, eyes narrowing.
Her elementary records were almost painfully ordinary. Quiet achiever. Consistent second place. Always close to the top but never quite claiming it.
But high school?
That was different.
She was the track and field champion. Volleyball varsity. Army Cadet Corps Commander during junior high.
He leaned back slowly, jaw tightening.
Army Cadet.
