Soraya disappeared for three days.
When she returned, her robes were torn, her eyes haunted.
"I was captured," she said. "They let me go with a message."
She opened her hand.
A coin burned with the mark of the Black Rose Pact.
On its surface, a single word: "Trade."
They wanted to exchange her life... for the child's.
Lucien moved to kill her for ever letting the enemy touch her. Aurelia stopped him. "She chose to come back. That's loyalty."
But deep inside, doubt crept in.