The flashbulbs erupted like a localized lightning storm the moment the limousine door opened.

Rain had slicked the pavement outside the Grand Ballroom of the Pierre Hotel, reflecting the chaotic strobes of the paparazzi who were crushed against the velvet ropes. Seraphina Vance sat in

The silence in the Grand Ballroom was profound. It was the kind of absolute, breathless quiet that only occurs when a room full of powerful people realizes they are trapped in the center of a blast radius.

Seraphina Vance descended the carpeted stairs with a slow, measured grace. The c

The grand, brass-handled doors of the Pierre Hotel ballroom violently swung open, and the world outside poured in.

A dozen federal agents in tactical windbreakers flooded the room, their badges gleaming under the dim ambient lighting. The wail of sirens that had been a distant threat o