We both turn to him.
“She’s not fighting it.” He shrugs. “Not the way she should.”
“She doesn’t know,” Jace says.
“She feels it,” I counter. “That’s enough.”
The silence that follows isn’t empty. It’s heavy. Loaded. The kind that means something irreversible is about to happen.
“I want her,” I admit. “I’m not pretending I don’t.”
Jace exhales. “Same.”
“We’re past pretending.” Silas doesn’t move. He just stares at the wall as if it holds all the answers. “I think it goes without saying that we all want her. Now, we just need to achieve that goal.”
I nod as I ask, “Then we agree?”
“No games. No favorites. No one gets pushed out.” Jace nods. “If she plays fair, so will we.”
“She will,” I say. “She’s not like the last one.”
“She better not be,” Silas mutters. “Because if she tries to break this apart, I’ll be the one to run her off.”
“Like you did last time?” Jace’s brow lifts. “Or worse?”
Silas doesn’t smile. “Exactly like last time… Worse if I have to. But Eris isn’t like her, so this feels very hypothetical.”
We don’t shake hands. There’s no need to make a vow.
We just stand there, in the center of the loft, surrounded by code, camera feeds, and the ghost of the woman none of us can afford to lose.
Silas is right. It doesn’t need to be said… But I still think it.
She’s ours.
And we’re going to keep her.
Together.
Or not at all.
Ican’t stop replaying the way each message from the app feels.
Not how they read.
But how they feel.
Some nights, it’s flirty… All sass and confidence, hunger disguised as charm. Like it knows it can have me in two words or less, and it’s daring me to admit it.
Other nights, it’s soft. Gentle. Almost poetic. The kind of voice that wants to curl around me, whisper what I don’t realize I need to hear, and make the silence go quiet again.
And sometimes… Sometimes, it feels like a threat wrapped in devotion. A wolf in sheep’s clothing, ready to eat me alive.
I sit cross-legged on my bed, scrolling through old conversations, trying to pinpoint the shift. There isn’t one. Noclear change in tone or phrasing. But I can feel it. Something is different.
I open the thread, thumb hovering over the keyboard as I hit send.
Eris:
