Rome blinked, processing. Luca clenched his jaw.
Bastion’s voice lowered. “Shared?”
“Our cousin refused,” I told him. “So now we’re here.”
His throat moved as he swallowed. “Here for what exactly?”
I looked directly at him. At all three of them.
“Public punishment. He wants you to see what happens when a Crow thinks love matters more than loyalty.”
I pushed open the door.
The disciplinary chamber hit them like a punch, it always did. The air felt wrong, too controlled. Banners hung like silent judges. Every older Crow sat with the posture of men who’d seen this before and decided long ago to stop feeling anything about it. Over thirty of our cousins lined the room as well.
I didn’t sit. I stayed near the back, between my brothers and the door. Protective habit. Useless here. Nikolai moved a step closer to them, as if they needed the grounding. They did.
Then the door to the side opened.
The girl was dragged in. Torn dress. Blood along her hairline. She lifted her chin anyway, and the pride in it was what made my stomach twist.
Because it wasn’t her face I saw.
It was Madeline’s.
Just for a flicker, a cruel flash of imagination I couldn’t shut off. Her blonde hair. Her stubborn jaw. Her courage where it didn’t belong.
A future I could never allow.
Nikolai’s hand brushed my sleeve, small movement, barely there. He noticed. He felt me freeze.
Damius entered like the showman he was, shadows bending around him. His eyes swept the room, bypassed the victims, landed on the audience.
He wanted the reaction. The fracture. The weakness.
“When a Crow keeps what isn’t his,” Damius began, “the dynasty takes it back.”
Enforcers stepped toward her, syndicate men, not even Crows. That part always twisted the knife deeper.
The sound she made cracked the air.
The cousin sobbed into the brace that held him still. Couldn’t even turn his head. Spare himself the sight.
I watched my brothers instead.
Luca dug his nails into Bastion’s wrist.
Rome’s jaw locked, vibrating with contained fury.
Nikolai stared ahead, mind somewhere cold.
And me, I forced myself still, because Damius watched for movement. I felt his gaze slide over us like a blade. I felt his calculation. His hunger for any sign one of us might love someone too much.
Anyone.
Madeline’s name flared through my skull again, unwanted and unquiet.
Damius kept his eyes on us while the violence unfolded. He didn’t look at the woman. He didn’t look at the cousin. He looked at us.
