By ten o'clock that morning, the War Room of Regina Royal Estate had ceased to resemble a place where military decisions were ordinarily made and had instead become a chamber in which every person present seemed to be waiting for the walls themselves to reveal what they knew. Maps of Regina covered the long oak table, communication reports lay open beside them, and several monitors displayed interrupted signals from the northern territories, yet none of those practical concerns could explain the faint crimson glow that occasionally appeared beneath the floorboards whenever Elara moved too close to the centre of the room. She stood beside the tall windows with her arms folded loosely across her waist, watching the pale morning sunlight fall over King's Avenue, while Alessandro remained near the table with Luca and Freya, his attention divided between the reports and the woman whose presence had become inseparable from every mystery now surrounding his family.
