Arc Two: What Hunts in Darkness

Rune thought the nightmare was over.

The chains are gone. The collar is gone. She's back where she belongs beside Killian, with Theodore's arms wrapped around her neck and Alexander pretending he wasn't worried sick.

She has a home.

But someone is still watching.

The estate where Rune was held reveals something far more dangerous than a kidnapping. Hidden records, coded payments, and years of carefully gathered observations point to a conspiracy far larger than anyone imagined. Valmont was only a pawn. The men who died were only pieces on a board nobody could see.

As Killian and Alexander begin tearing apart the network hidden within the kingdom, old secrets begin resurfacing. Noble families grow nervous. Records vanish. Witnesses disappear. Somewhere beyond the border, an enemy who should have died twenty years ago is patiently waiting.

And he has not forgotten.

While the hunt for the truth grows darker, Rune finds herself caught at the center of a mystery she doesn't understand. The more answers they uncover, the more impossible her existence becomes. Someone is searching for the truth of what she is-and how she came to be.

Because not every monster waits in the shadows.

Some are hunting from them.

And as the kingdom's secrets begin to unravel, Rune will learn that being found once does not mean she is safe.

Only that the hunt has begun.