ODETTE'S POINT OF VIEW
The first message came through a private, encrypted line I hadn't touched in two years. A line only four people had ever known existed.
Three of them were dead.
The fourth… I hadn't heard from since I buried Sable.
The phone buzzed once. No caller ID. Just the symbol of a black crown bleeding from the top—a mark from my past. The one I swore I would never see again.
I answered without speaking.
A voice hissed through static. "Your son. The boy. He's ours now."
My heart didn't skip.
It stopped.
The silence that followed wasn't peace—it was war humming in my veins.
"Where?" I asked, my voice cold, sharp.
Click.
Nothing.
I stood frozen in the middle of the kitchen, the sunlight hitting my shoulder like a lie. Kiel wasn't home. Mama and Papa hadn't returned from the market. And Dalle...
I grabbed my other phone. Traced his tracker.
No signal.
Rawr's location pinged on a park bench.
My son's didn't.
