Chapter 6013

The latch clicked softly into place.

For a long moment, Jared stood without moving.

The warmth Rania had carried into the room still lingered—floral, bright, unguarded. It clung to the air like incense after worship. He let it remain. Let it fade on its own.

Then he turned.

The polite scholar was gone.

His spine straightened not with courtesy, but with calculation. The faint gentleness in his eyes thinned into something colder—measuring, precise.

“The Library Pavilion…”