Ambessa Medarda entered like a storm given human form—no warning, no restraint.

“Do you realize how easy it was to find you hiding here?” she snapped.

Allira Salo barely lifted his glass. “I do own the place.” That earned him nothing but colder air.

Ambessa crossed the room with measured precision, every step a threat. “It is exhausting,” she said, “keeping you relevant while you waste what little sense you have left.”

“If you propped as well as you prod,” Allira replied, finally looking up, “you wouldn’t be chasing updates about Kiramman’s undercity escapades.”

The name shifted the room. Conversations faltered.

“She’s no closer to Jinx,” he continued. “Yet everyone watches like she is.”

Ambessa’s jaw tightened. “Perhaps if you hadn’t been overpowered by a child in your own chambers—”

Allira’s smile sharpened. “It’s not the girl. It’s the name. Jinx bends people.”

He never finished. Ambessa struck. In a blur, she seized him and drove him to the floor. Glass shattered. Silence followed.

“Never,” she said coldly, “speak of my family.”