#Chapter 51: Accusation

ELENA The rain had finally stopped, but the sky was still bruised, heavy with the kind of gray that never really lifted. Damp air clung to the stone paths of Moonstone like a second skin, the scent of wet pine and distant smoke threading through the quiet. I stood near the edge of the terrace, the estate stretching behind me, its windows reflecting a fractured morning. Storms had come and gone—political and otherwise—but the ache in my chest remained. We’d survived the summit, barely. But something in the air told me the real storm hadn’t even started. There was a brief knock behind me and I turned to find my father’s Gamma standing there expectantly, his ever-present tablet held tightly in his hand. “Your father said you had some instruction for me?” he said. I took one more look out at our lands and sighed, coming back inside while Chad fell into step behind me. “Yes,” I said, heading down toward the front of the house where I’d seen Aiden earlier in the day. “New