Her thoughts remained calm.
Magnus intended to destroy the Donatis. She understood why. They had tried to kill her, and Captain Severin didn’t forgive that kind of mistake. But violence wasn’t the only way to end the conflict. The simplest solution lay in her hands.
She parked outside a high-end office building, its glass façade reflecting the noon sun and the steady movement of traffic along the avenue. People in tailored suits moved in and out of the revolving doors while a uniformed attendant stood near the entrance greeting arrivals. Elia stepped inside withouthesitation.
When she emerged again, two hours had passed.
Her expression remained composed as she stepped out into the bright midday light. The wide avenue shimmered with heat and motion, polished glass towers rising on either side while pedestrians threaded along the sidewalks with practiced urgency. Cars rolled steadily past the curb, horns and engines blending into the constant pulse of the downtown streets, the city continuing its routine without the slightest awareness of the choice she had justmade.
Elia returned to Magnus’s car and started the engine. For several seconds she remained parked at the curb, her hands steady on the wheel. Then she eased into traffic and pulled into the street. The road leading away from downtown split at the next intersection.
One direction led back toward Severin territory.
The other led toward the Donati estate.
Elia didn’t hesitate.
She turned toward the estate.
MAGNUS KNEW SOMETHINGwas wrong the moment he stepped into the bedroom he and Elia had begun sharing. The bed had been made in their absence, the covers pulled tight and the pillows aligned, as if a housekeeper had already come through after they left that morning. The careful order only emphasized what was missing.
Sunlight spilled through the tall windows, bright and indifferent, illuminating a room that should have held some trace of her. Instead it stoodsilent and empty, and the absence struck him immediately as wrong even before he understoodwhy.
He stepped back into the hallway and signaled to one of the guards. “Where is she?”
The guard blinked in confusion. “She left earlier, sir.”
“Left where?”
“We assumed she was meeting you in the study.”
A cold realization settled through Magnus.
He moved down the hall toward the security office with long strides that did nothing to disguise the surge of dread tightening through his chest. The guards inside straightened immediately when he entered.
“Pull the cameras,” Magnus said, his voice cutting through the room like a pistol shot. Aguard immediately turned to the console and brought up the estate surveillance.
Within seconds the footage appeared on the screen.
Magnus leaned closer. The footage unfolded with brutal clarity. Elia crossed the courtyard, her dark hair lifting in the wind as she moved quickly toward the garage. She unlocked the car and slid behind the wheel. The gates opened. The vehicle rolled through them and disappeared onto the road beyond. The timestamp warned it happened nearly two hoursago.
For a moment Magnus didn’t move. The room around him seemed to tighten, the air turning sharp in his lungs as the reality of what he was seeing settled with brutal force. She hadn’t gone for awalk through the gardens. She hadn’t retreated to another wing of the house. Elia had taken one of his cars and driven out of the gates alone. After the attempt on her life. After he had sworn she would never face danger without him again.
A hard, dangerous fury surged up through his chest, tangled with something far worse. Fear. Not the cold tactical awareness he used in a fight, but a raw, vicious surge that slammed straight into his gut. If the Donatis had touched her again—if this had anything to do with them—there would be nothing left of that family when he was finished.
Magnus straightened, every line of his body tightening with lethal purpose as he turned toward the men in the room. “She’s going to the Donatis,” he announced.
Leif looked up sharply from across the room. “You think she would walk into that house alone?”
Magnus’s face went completely still. “Yes,” hesaid.
The word dropped into the room like a live round.
For half a heartbeat no one moved. Then every man in the room reacted atonce.
Chairs scraped hard across the floor. Leif swore as he reached for the weapon on the table beside him. He shoved to his feet, his expression turning cold and murderous as the implications landed. Alaric was already moving toward the door, phone in his hand, issuing rapid orders to the security teams stationedoutside.
Elia had already proven she possessed a courage that refused to bend under pressure. The memory of the study rose sharply in his mind now. The way she had watched him. The steadiness in her voice. The strange calm that had settled over her after he showed her the shield on their palms. At the time it had only unsettled him. Now the pieces began to shift into place with brutal clarity. Fury and fear surged through his chest so hard it stole the air from his lungs.
