Night had fallen, cloaking the palace in its deceptive stillness, but my blood still simmered like molten fire. I had spent the entire evening trying to drown the rage clawing at my insides, yet it refused to settle.

Earlier tonight, I had been at that wretched brothel. We had received intel that Vikram, the scarred-faced jackal, had begun frequenting that place again. I went only to keep an eye on him, to learn his movements, to catch him slipping where the shadows grew careless. That was the reason. Only that.