"I do," Darius says, calm as frost. "Hurting someone physically is crude. There are far better ways to… destroy a life."
The cold in his voice makes my skin prickle.
"As of now," he continues, "you are dismissed from the research team you've been working with. Your contributions will be removed. Your grants frozen."
I blink. That doesn't sound like much, but Maeve recoils like she's been struck.
"You can't," she says, suppressed outrage in her voice. "I work for nature. What you're doing goes against everything you stand for. Against youroath."
"I do care about the marine project you've been nurturing for the last eight years. It is… promising," Darius responds with the same frosty calm. "That's why my foundation is donating four million dollars to accelerate it."
Maeve's mouth opens, but nothing comes out.
"However," Darius adds, voice edged, "youwon't be part of it. You'll be erased completely." And then, colder still: "If you continue helping them, I'll make sure you're erased from everything you touch."
Maeve turns to us, then back to him, her face pale, hands shaking. No weapons, no blood, just precision cruelty cutting out the one thing she's built her life around.
Darius turns to my husbands. "Ewan Asher Darrow. Alasdair Darrow."
"What? You're going to steal our lunch money too?" Kayden snaps, grin sharp and empty of humor.
"You have no idea what kind of enemy you've made," Darius says, almost bored.
Then his eyes come back to me, and something softer breaks through. "We made a promise, you and I. I gave you the ring. You said yes." His gaze drops to the band on my hand. "This is a blip in our story that's meant to last centuries, my nymph. I wish you'd come with me and spared the bloodshed. But now… their fates are sealed."
I step closer to the barrier. "Darius, please. For whatever we had—don't. Let me go."
His eyes hold mine, deep and aching. "That is the one thing I can't do."
Then he reaches through.
His skin withers the instant it meets the ward, gray and cracking, but he pushes anyway until his fingertips brush mine. His eyes never leave my face.
The urge to answer that touch is unbearable, but I don't take his hand. I don't pull away either.
"That's it." Kayden charges.
The world detonates.
A crossbow bolt shrieks from behind the cars—thunk—straight into Kayden's shoulder. He staggers, snarling, still driving forward.
Astrid moves like she was waiting for him to be reckless. She whips a glass bottle from her coat and lobs it high over the ward, arcing above Darius's line.
Crack. Tomas clips it midair. The bottle explodes, and wildbane powders down like toxic snow.
Coughs. Shouts. A body drops. Wheezing everywhere.
Darlene clamps a hand over her mouth, sways, and still manages to bark, "Hold back—"
Thunk. Astrid's throwing axe buries into her side.
Darius's people open fire even as the wildbane folds some of them to their knees.
Asher yanks me behind him. "No," I snap, tearing free and sprinting to Kayden. He's clutching his shoulder, feral with pain, still angling for Darius.
Darius steps sideways, braced to meet him.Crack. He jolts back, hit in the arm.
Johnny lunges, trying to shield Darius, loyal to the last.
