“She’s…” He fumbled for a word that wouldn’t feel too small for what he meant. Nothing neat, nothing simple fit. “Strong, but not performative. Rooted. She doesn’t yield—to me, to them, to anyone. And it terrifies me, almost as much as it makes me want to watch her burn the whole damn map and make her own.”
Nathan’s mouth tugged, not a smile, exactly. More like he’d seen this story before.
“You don’t fall for someone like her. You rise to meet her. And that changes everything.”
Gideon dragged a hand through his hair, the burden of it all finally showing in the edges of his expression.
“She’s on their radar,” he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. “Evelyn’s playing chess. Alex is prowling. Cate’s watching every damn move.”
“And Sebastian?” Nathan asked, voice suddenly colder.
Gideon’s voice came low, tight. “Sebastian doesn’t give a shit about winning. He wants to break things, especially anything I care about.”
Nathan didn’t blink. “They think she’s your weakness.”
“They’re wrong.” Gideon’s eyes were ice now. “She’s not my weakness. She’s a threat. And they know it.”
The room quieted again,the heaviness of those words shifting the air. Nathan studied him for a beat, then let out a low whistle.
“Well, damn,” Nathan murmured, a crooked smirk forming as he leaned back. “She’s under your skin. Doesn’t happen often.”
Gideon huffed a dry breath. “It’s not just her. It’s what she represents. She doesn’t bend. She doesn’t fit into the world they’ve built—and they can’t stand that.”
Nathan nodded slowly, eyes narrowing. “And it’s exactly what scares Evelyn. She couldn’t stomach Isabel either, and she was tame by comparison. You remember how fast she was gone.”
Gideon clenched his jaw. “One conversation. One threat. One rumor. That’s all it took.”
“And you haven’t let anyone close since.” Nathan’s voice dropped, not accusing, but honest. “Until now.”
Gideon leaned forward, elbows braced against the desk.
“She’s not like the others,” he said, voice certain. “And I won’t let them force her out.”
Nathan’s tone sharpened. “Then you know what’s coming. She’s not only athreat to your position, Gideon. She threatens the entire structure they’ve built.”
He exhaled heavily through his nose; his shoulders drew tighter.
“So what the hell am I supposed to do?”
The frustration in his voice cut clean through the quiet. “She’s already in it—there’s no going back. If I push her away…” He didn’t finish the thought, jaw tightening instead.
“They’ll see it as blood in the water,” Nathan finished.
Gideon’s silence was telling.
Nathan’s voice softened. “She’s not looking for someone to guard her, Gideon. She needs someone who won’t break when things fall apart. Someone who doesn’t protect her—someone who stands with her.”
Gideon didn’t answer right away. His thoughts had drifted to Arden. To the way she moved through a room without apology. To the way she saw him, beneath the polish, beneath the power.
She wasn’t fragile.
She wasn’t asking to be saved.
But she was stepping straight into chaos, and this time, he couldn’t just stand there and watch it unfold.
“She makes me want to believe,” he admitted, voice low and raw. “But what if that’s not enough?”
“Then you fight for it,” Nathan said, without hesitation. “Because if she’s worth it, and I think she is. You don’t get to stand still.”
