And more.
I turn toward the sanctuary, and when the building responds to my presence it feels like coming home. The stones hum softly beneath my feet. Carved symbols pulse with faint recognition as I pass.
When I step through the main hall, I stop.
There’s something new. A raised dais of dark stone has emerged from the floor at the far end—not quite a throne room, but the beginning of one. The platform is elegant, understated, like the sanctuary is testing an idea. Seeing if I’ll accept what it’s offering.
My breath catches. The sight should unnerve me. Should send me running.
Instead, it feels like coming home.
But the guys—
They hang back like I might shatter if they get too close.
Gray keeps his distance, storm-colored eyes tracking my movement with something between hunger and wariness. Rhett’s hands twitch at his sides like he wants to reach for me but doesn’t dare. Even Jace, who’s never met a boundary he couldn’t charm his way across, stays carefully out of arm’s reach.
The contrast should hurt. It did hurt, before the fountain. Before Seth. Before everything changed.
Before the truth of everything became clear in my head.
Now it just makes something sharp and bright unfurl behind my ribs.
If they’re afraid of me, maybe they should be.
I pause just inside the sanctuary’s main hall, and the weight of their attention feels like something I can use. The Ether swirls around my feet, silver shot through with those black threads that everyone keeps pretending they don’t see.
“So,” I say, and my voice carries in a way it never has before. Like it knows exactly where it belongs. “Are you going to tell me what you’ve been hiding, or should I guess?”
The silence that follows feels different than their usual careful quiet. This one has weight to it.
Rhett shifts his weight, jaw ticking. “Bree—”
“You left me kneeling in that courtyard,” I continue, cutting him off. The words taste like power and betrayal at the same time. “While they called me dangerous. While Phil’s threats hung over these people. And you all just… watched.”
I look at each of them, really look, and it’s like seeing them for the first time. Gray’s hunger beneath that careful mask. Rhett’s heat making the air shimmer between us, but his hands staying carefully at his sides. Theo’s guilt written across his face in lines I know how to read now. Wes near the doorway, lips parted like he wants to speak but can’t quite find the words.
Thane won’t even look at me directly. Like he’s afraid of what he’ll see reflected back.
Only Stellan steps closer instead of back, just like he did in the courtyard. His eyes hold approval, sharp and unflinching—like he sees what I’m becoming and dares the others to admit it.
“You want me when I’m small,” I say, taking a step forward. Several of them take a step back, and that tells me everything I needto know. “When I’m manageable. When I need saving. But when I’m real—when I’m all of it—you can’t handle it.”
“That’s not—” Rhett starts, heat shimmering around his shoulders.
“Isn’t it?”
The question hangs there, and I can see the answer written across their faces. The way they want to reach for me but don’t. The way desire wars with something that looks a lot like fear.
I’m done being the one who reaches first.
“You’re afraid,” I say, and the observation settles into place like a key turning in a lock. “All of you. Except—” My gaze finds Stellan, who still hasn’t stepped back. “Thank you.”
The words create a crack swear I can see. Thane’s jaw ticks, and the others exchange looks that feel loaded with something sharp. Stellan’s small smile feels like drawing a line in the sand.
When nobody else speaks, I feel something that might be disappointment, if disappointment could cut like this.
Jace shifts his weight, blades catching the light. His face closes off before he speaks. “We found something,” he says, voice tight in a way I haven’t heard before. “In your apartment. Back before any of this started. Cameras.”
