“There’s more going on than you realize,” he said quietly. “And I don’t like being manipulated.”
My eyes narrowed. “Manipulated?”
He nodded, pushing off the desk. “I orchestrated a plan. But somewhere along the way, the pieces stopped moving like I wanted them to. Someone is playing me.”
His gaze met mine. Serious. Calculating.Wary.
“And that,” he said, “is a problem for both of us.”
I scoffed, moving away from him.
“That’s ironic,” I muttered. “Someonemanipulatingyou. It looks good on you, actually.”
Cyran tilted his head slightly, his bruised jaw already purpling. He didn’t speak, just waited.
“Now you know how itfeels,” I said, voice sharper than steel. “To be played like a piece on a board you didn’t even know you were standing on.”
He didn’t argue.
Didn’t deny it.
He just nodded once, solemn.
“If you’re done floating on that high of vengeance,” he said finally, “we have business to discuss.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Whatbusinesscould we possibly have?”
“I underestimated you,” Cyran said plainly. “That won’t happen again. And let me make something clear—” His gaze locked with mine, unflinching. “I will never try to have you killed again. Not through a whisper. Not through a hand I don’t control.”
I didn’t believe him.Couldn’t.
But then he said something I didn’t expect.
“I’ll swear it.”
I blinked.
“I offer you a blood oath.”
The words hung in the air like a blade.
Binding. Final.
Unbreakable.
Cyran stepped around the desk, slowly, and withdrew a slender blade from his coat. He held it out, hilt first, not as a threat.
But as anoffering.
“You want truth?” he said. “Then let’s start here.”
Chapter
Thirty-Six
Cyran still held the dagger between us, his expression alert but open, like a man tired of shadows but unwilling to step fully into the light.
“I won’t lie to you,” he said. “Ihaveties to the Crimson Sigil. Strategic ones. But I have never betrayed the crown.”
