Damon had gone into this knowing it would take patience, strategy, and more acting than he had ever done in his life, because manipulating someone who had survived this long beside power was never supposed to be simple.
He expected resistance, layers to remove one by one. Simply put, he expected Daisy to be sharp, cautious, and difficult to penetrate.
But what he did not expect, however, was how quickly she unraveled once he fed her exactly what she craved most. Validation and the promise of something greater, just as Seraphine had told him to do.
It almost unsettled him how little it took.
They were still standing in Ravyn's study, the door closed, the air thick with the kind of secrecy that felt dangerous and addictive at the same time.
