Because punishment was never the real point.
Control was.
The girl collapsed afterward, barely conscious. The cousin wasn’t crying anymore. That scared me more than the sobs.
Damius turned fully toward my brothers.
“Weak men love. Strong men obey their Dynasty.
Then he dismissed the room. People filed out.
When the enforcers pulled the woman’s head back, the sound of the knife hitting flesh cut through the hall.
Rome jolted. Bastion flinched. Luca froze.
“Keep walking,” I murmured.
We didn’t look back.
Outside, the air tasted like smoke and iron. Nik lit a cigarette. I lit a joint and handed it to Rome because he needed something to hold onto.
“Now you know. This is what happens when he thinks we care about someone.” I exhaled.
“He made him watch,” Bastion said quietly.
“That’s the whole point,” Nik replied. “Obedience through paralysis.”
Rome brought the joint to his lips, hands shaking. “Why do it like that?”
“Because Damius doesn’t enforce the Codex. He weaponizes it.” Nik fingers tapped his side once. He was rattled. There was no accepting what happened in that room. Other than our overseer keeping his monster’s leashed and loyal:
Luca lit another cigarette and passed it to Bastion.
“It wasn’t about the girl. It was about the message.”
Luca stared at the ground. “And that message is what?”
“That loving someone gives him leverage.”
Their heads snapped up. They understood. All at once. My chest tightened. The ache hit low and silent.
Because while they watched a stranger die, all I could think about was Madeline’s throat under someone else’s blade. Madeline sobbing on a floor she didn’t belong on.
Madeline being punished because of me.
Damius wouldn’t need much. One slip. One rumor. One wrong look at her.
He’d drag her into a room like this. Make me choose dynasty or her. And I would choose her. Every time. Which meant death for both of us.
I’d known it before. Today made it absolute.
Rome stopped walking. “We should’ve?—”
“There was nothing you could do,” Nikolai said, gripping his arm. “If you moved, it would’ve been seen as rebellion.”
“You were being tested,” I told them. “Not them. You.”
We walked in silence toward the airfield.
