Chapter 31

The storm continued to ravage the land outside, thunder hammering against the thick stone walls of Blackwood Manor like a judge's gavel.

The bedroom was permeated with a cloying, nauseating mélange of scents—expensive red wine, gastric acid, and the stench of power on the verge of rot.

Kieran Blackwood lay on the carpet, his body contorted in a stiff, unnatural posture. The toxins of the w