Chapter 1 - The Silver Talon
“Open that aviary cage, Sylvie.”
Camille De Winter dabbed translucent powder across her cheek.
“Let the beast fly into the gale.”
Outside, a Mediterranean tempest battered the Corsican fortress.
Salt spray lashed the bulletproof glass.
Inside the courtyard aviary perched Valkyrie.
A fifteen-year-old Harris’s hawk.
Scarred along her left wing.
Half-blind from an old shrapnel blast.
The hawk had belonged to Gabriel Moreau.
Dominic’s older brother.
Killed seven years ago in an alleged military training crash.
Dominic fed the bird personally every sunrise.
Nobody was allowed to disturb her.
“She cannot fly in a gale, Miss De Winter,” I whispered.
“The wind will dash her against the basalt cliffs.”
Camille snapped her gold compact shut.
Her eyes narrowed into cold slits.
“Dominic is hosting forty syndicate bosses tonight. We are uniting our empires.”
She stepped toward me, her black silk gown trailing like oil.
“We won't have a screeching, filthy bird ruining our engagement dinner.”
Her fingers clamped around my wrist, digging diamonds into my flesh.
“Your younger sister attends an elite boarding school funded by Dominic’s trust.
One word from me, and she is thrown onto the streets tonight.”
My blood ran cold.
My name is Sylvie Laurent.
I was twenty-two.
I had cleaned this fortress for fourteen months to protect my sister, Claire.
Dominic Moreau was called the Iron Raven.
A ruthless don whose vengeance was absolute.
“Open the cage,” Camille hissed, shoving me back.
She glided toward the banquet hall.
I couldn't kill Valkyrie.
I pulled on the heavy leather falconer’s glove.
I offered my forearm to the bird.
Valkyrie stepped onto the leather, gripping tight.
I wrapped my wool cloak around her body.
As I crossed the terrace, lightning tore the sky.
Thunder shook the stone floor.
Valkyrie panicked, thrashing her wings against my ribs.
Her jesses caught on the iron railing.
A silver band around her right talon cracked open.
Hardened mud and oxidized silver fell away.
Inside was a miniature roll of military-grade microfilm.
Camille threw open the terrace doors.
Two armed guards flanked her.
When she saw the silver cylinder on the flagstones, her face went white.
“What is that?!” she shrieked, lunging forward.
Valkyrie struck like lightning.
Her curved beak slashed the back of Camille’s hand.
Camille screamed, stumbling backward onto the wet stone.
“What is happening here?”
A deep, gravelly voice cut through the howling gale.
Dominic Moreau stepped onto the terrace.
Thirty-six years old.
Broad.
Imposing.
Charcoal tuxedo soaked in rain.
The music in the ballroom died instantly.
Forty syndicate capos crowded the glass doors.
Camille sobbed theatrical tears, holding her bleeding fingers.
“Dominic! That rabid bird attacked me! Kill it!”
Dominic ignored her.
He knelt in the torrential downpour beside me.
His large, scarred hand gently stroked Valkyrie’s breast feathers until she
stilled.
Then his gray eyes locked onto the silver cylinder.
He picked it up.
His thumb traced the serial number: French Airborne — Capt. G. Moreau.
Dominic’s breath hitched in his throat.
“Gabriel’s flight marker,” he whispered.
He held the microfilm to the terrace floodlights.
His expression turned to an empty, terrifying void.
“Dominic, darling...” Camille stammered, backing away.
“It’s old military junk... don't ruin our night...”
Dominic stood up, towering over his bride.
“This film contains the black box audio from Gabriel’s plane,” he whispered.
His voice was deadlier than a drawn blade.
“The missile that brought him down was fired by your father’s private mercenary
unit.”
Camille began to shake violently.
“Dominic, please! It was an accident!”
Dominic’s gray eyes turned pitch black.
“Who ordered the strike, Camille?”
Camille looked through the rain-streaked glass into the dining room.
Her father, Henri De Winter, stood inside with his hand inside his jacket.
Camille’s voice broke into a terrified whimper:
May you like
“The man who ordered your brother’s execution... is sitting at the right hand of
your dining table right now.”
