Sera nodded as if she understood what follow up meant when her roommate was in abag.
Alaric waited until the door clicked shut behind the officer.Then he leaned forward, forearms on the table, and looked at her.Not at her face. At her eyes.”What did she really say?” he asked. His voice remained even, but something in his stare wasnot.
Her breath hitched and her throat burned around the words.”She said, ‘Bjorn was married to her.’”
Alaric went very still.”Andthen?” he pressed.
Sera swallowed hard. “She said, ‘You’re next.’”
The silence that followed was like a pressure wave.Alaric’s hand curled once on the tabletop, then flattened.
“Who was she talking about?” Sera asked, and it came out as a raw, helpless question. “Who was married to your father? Who isher?Why would Rebecca say that?”
Alaric exhaled slowly. “I don’t know,” he admitted, then clarified without quite saying it. “I don’t know which part matters yet.”
“And the other thing,” Sera said, voice shaking now. “She said I was next. Does that mean what I think it does?”
Alaric didn’t answer. His gaze shifted, afraction toward the glass wall, toward the lobby beyond.
“Vidar Johnson was with her,” Serasaid.
Alaric didn’t deny it.
“He was right there,” Sera went on. “He was talking to her. He’s the one who asked if she said anything. Not... Not how was she. First question. What did she say. He’s the one who…”Sera stopped because her mind flashed the image of his breath hitching, his voice breaking, the performance that had been almost convincing until sheremembered the way Rebecca had looked at her and said you’renext.
“I’m not prepared to jump to that conclusion, yet,” Alaricsaid.
Sera stared at him.”I am,” shesaid.
Alaric’s eyes narrowed. “There’s no proof.”
“I don’t need proof,” Sera shot back, and anger surged up through grief like a blade. “He was standing with her when she fell. And she told me I’m next. What else am I supposed to think?”
“That you’re supposed to stay alive,” hesaid.
The words hit Sera like a shove. Her pulse thudded hard in her ears, drowning out everything else.Stay alive.
Alaric stood abruptly. “We’re leaving.”
Sera rose on impulse, legs unsteady.
They left the conference room and moved through the lobby as if moving fast enough might keep the night from catching up to them. Officers nodded at Alaric. Security opened a path without being asked. Outside, night air slapped Sera’s face, cold and sharp, carrying the metallic tang of lights and pavement and something unsettled she couldn’t name. She didn’t rememberit being night.
Alaric’s car waited at the curb, dark and sleek, engine already running. He opened the passenger door and Sera climbed in, fingers clumsy as she fastened her seatbelt. The door shut with a solid thud, sealing them into a pocket of quiet that made her ears ring. The building, the police, the questions all fell away atonce.
They pulled away from the curb, the lights of Severin Holdings shrinking in the rearview mirror as Alaric guided the car onto the open road. Traffic thinned. The city breathed differently out here. Sera’s tension eased, her body finally registering the quiet hum of the engine, the steady lines of the road ahead, the fact that they were moving steadily away from the horror of Rebecca’s death.
She exhaled slowly, pressing a hand to her ribs as if grounding herself. “I hate that sensation,” she said, attempting lightness and failing. “The part where you don’t know if the worst is over or just waiting its turn.”
Alaric’s mouth firmed, eyes locked on the road ahead. “We’re clear,” he said, though the words sounded more like an order than a reassurance.
Sera nodded, then turned her head to look at him fully. The streetlights flashed across her face, pale and searching, her voice suddenly veryquiet. “Alaric?”
“Yes.”
“If this keeps escalating,” she said quietly, “am I going to die next?”
Chapter 10
