The silence between them snapped tight, and I felt it in my bones. How much more was going on beneath their words.
Because this wasn’t just aboutme.
It was about power. Control. Sacrifice.
And the cost of choosing the wrong path when the whole realm might burn for it.
Zander’s gaze collided with mine like a tempest barely held in check.
His eyes weren’t just burning, they wereconsuming. Shadows of Dark Flame rippled in their depths, flickers of black-gray dancing just beneath the surface of his pupils. He was close to the edge. Too close.
Even Remy, calm, calculated Remy, went still beside me. He knew. If Zander lost control in this room, there wasn’t a single person who could stop him. Not even a dragon.
But I didn’t flinch.
“Why didn’t you interfere?” I asked quietly. “Why didhepull me out of that fight and not you?”
Zander’s jaw flexed, fire dancing across his knuckles as he balled his fists. “Because I wasorderednot to.”
The words cracked the air like a whip.
Remy’s brows lifted slightly. Even he hadn’t known that.
Zander took a breath, and when he exhaled, the storm behind his eyes dimmed. A fraction. “Buthewasn’t. That’s why I warned him. That’s why I ordered him to stay.”
My anger pulsed beneath my skin, a wounded, coiling thing, but I let it settle. Let the weight of what he was saying sink in.
Zander hadn’t stood back out of indifference.
He’d put his pride aside.
He’d gone toRemy. The man who had once loved me, maybe still did, and made sure someone would save me when hecouldn’t.
That wasn’t weakness.
That was desperation.
And it wasn’t just about the duel.
“Someone wanted me in that ring,” I said, my voice low. “Someone wanted to see what I’d do. Or what Kaelith wouldn’t.”
Zander didn’t deny it.
I turned toward him fully, even as pain still clung to my muscles like a second skin.
“Who organized it?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“But you think it wasn’t just Perin.”
He met my eyes again. This time, the fire was contained, simmering in his veins.
“No,” he admitted. “I think someone higher gave him permission. Maybe even the order.”
“Theron?” I asked. “Or Inderia?”
Zander’s silence was the only answer I needed.
