(Charity Gala, New York Stock Exchange)
The champagne tower caught and scattered the cold gleam of pretense.
Alia's locked onto her target — Carson Thorne, founder of Horizon Enterprises. Surrounded by reporters, he wore a flawlessly tailored Tom Ford tuxedo over a body forged on football fields. As his storm-gray eyes swept across the room, a jolt shot down Aria's spine.
"Mr. Thorne, are you concerned that Davies is about to dominate the renewable energy sector?" a reporter pressed.
"When sharks get hungry," Carson swirled his glass lazily, "they go for the prey with the highest sunk cost first."
His gaze sliced toward Alia's like a blade.
"Like speculators dressed up as clean energy saviors. Don't you agree, Ms. Reed?"
Under the soft blush of the rose quartz chandeliers, Alia's caught the emblem on his lapel pin: a phoenix in mid-flight, coiled around a shattered chain — the sigil of the Sterling family's private militia, the Order of the Shackled Flame.