.
I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Without the mask, I looked like a man haunted. With it, I looked like a god. I pressed the cold metal to my face, feeling the familiar click as the magnetic seals locked behind my ears.
"Orion," I said into my comms. "Bring the car around. We're going to the Kian estate early."
"Early, Alpha?" Orion's voice crackled in my ear. "The gala doesn't start for two hours. The press isn't even staged yet."
"I don't care about the press," I snapped. "I need to see her."
The drive across the valley was a blur of speed and shadow. My mind was a battlefield of conflicting impulses. One part of me wanted to take Hannah and run—to get her away from the vipers and the ghosts and the ancient bloodlines. The other part, the Alpha part, wanted to use her. I wanted to harness that purple fire I had seen and turn it against our enemies.
