The Betrayal

That night, the Hudson Highlands were shrouded in a thick, freezing river fog that rolled off the dark water like plumes of dry ice. Inside the estate, every exterior floodlight had been extinguished under Kael's tactical blackout protocol. Infrared cameras and motion tripwires monitored every inch of the three-mile perimeter, feeding real-time thermal telemetry to the security command center in the lower bastion. Lila sat in the grand library before…