Chapter 21

The morning air was thick with anticipation as Erica slipped out of her home, careful not to alert anyone. The tension of the past few weeks had driven her to this moment, the lines between ally and enemy blurred beyond recognition. With each passing day, her instincts had screamed louder, urging her to act. She’d been the victim of too many plots, too many attempts on her life. She wasn’t going to wait for the next one.

Her wounds had healed, but she still carried the weight of them as if they were freshly inflicted. Every ache reminded her of the fragility of life, of how easily she could have been lost. And now, with Julian’s secret life fully exposed and King lurking in the shadows, Erica could no longer afford to stay passive. She had to take matters into her own hands.

No one knew the truth about her, not even Julian. Not about the years spent training under her father’s men, the long days of drills and grueling combat sessions, the intense survival exercises that had hardened h