Adrian's pov
I noticed her presence the moment she stepped into the palace courtyard—regal, graceful, eyes scanning the stone walls like they were once hers. Elsa Wulf, cousin to Damon, and a name I hadn't heard in years. She moved like someone who remembered the way things used to be and hated how they had changed. Her silver cloak fluttered behind her as she approached, a confident smile tugging at the corners of her lips, but her gaze was fixed on me. There was something unsettling in the way she stared—nostalgia, maybe, or hunger disguised as warmth. She had sent no ravens, no word ahead. Just arrived like the shadow of the past I didn't know I was waiting for. Damon's cousin or not, she carried secrets in her silence, and I didn't trust her.
