POV: Lucian

Midnight finds Lucian slipping through the den's corridors with the practiced stealth of someone who has spent the past week learning which guards rotate when and which passages connect to exits that aren't constantly monitored. The blood-sealed note burns metaphorically in the pocket where it's been kept since the council session, its request for meeting pulling with nearly the same insistence as the mate bond itself.

The eastern gardens wait beyond the den's main defensive walls,