Isabella didn't move.
"Lock down the outer gates. I want scouts in every tower. If Alessandro breathes in our direction, I want to know."
Sophia nodded, but there was something else in her eyes something Isabella had come to recognize over the last brutal weeks:
Fear.
"Isabella…" she murmured, hesitant. "If Damian returns tonight."
"He won't," Isabella cut in. "Or if he does… he will find me ready."
Her hand brushed against her stomach.
A subtle movement.
A reminder that she did not stand alone.
For a moment, softness flickered in her features, but it vanished as quickly as it came.
Tonight, softness was a weakness she could not afford.
Luca burst into the war room, breathless.
Everyone turned. Isabella didn't.
"Speak," she commanded.
"We intercepted communications. Alessandro's strike teams are mobilizing on the northern ridge. They're preparing for a direct assault."
A murmur of panic rushed through the room.
Isabella didn't blink.
"Let them come."
